Walk for the Future
Media Information
July 09
Bristol Run Copied.
Bristol Rotary’s successful annual 5km fun run which has raised over £130,000 for charity is being copied around the UK.
Run for the Future, now in its fourth year, has not only raised awareness and funds for the Bristol Urological Institute Prostate Cancer Appeal, but it has led directly to cutting edge research which could result in a national screening programme.
The template has proved so successful it’s now been adopted by the Wroxon and Bure Valley Rotary Group near Norwich, who are staging a Walk for the Future in October.
Organiser, Jilly Gourley, says the walk across the Norfolk Broads will be over nine miles, but all money raised will go towards prostate cancer treatment at hospitals in Norwich and Cromer.
“We spotted an article about Run for the Future in Bristol in the Rotary magazine and thought ‘why aren’t we doing this’?” she said. We have the Race for Life for women, but there’s nothing for men.
“The survival rate for breast cancer has improved considerably in Norfolk, but we don’t seem to have anything for prostate cancer and men are not very good at taking care of themselves. We hope the Walk will make them and their families more aware.”
Bristol Rotary has given their Norfolk counterparts tremendous support, even helping with the design of the website, www.walkforthefuture.org.uk
This year’s Run for the Future takes place on the Downs in Bristol in September and Martina Peattie, from the organising committee, says it’s an event for the whole family.
“Thousands of women turn out for their cancer charity events and we want them to come along to Run for the Future as well. They may not be directly affected by prostate cancer, but mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and grandmothers can all be victims when the man in their lives dies,” she said.
“Run for the Future takes place in Bristol and the money raised stays in Bristol to pay for vital research and treatment of a disease that claims the lives of 10,000 men in this country every year.”
This year’s Run for the Future, which is sponsored by Spire Hospital,
takes place on the Downs in Bristol on Sunday, 20 September. For further information, or to register, visit www.runforthefuture.org or ring the Run for the Future Office on 0117 959 6328.
