CampaignsHealthcare RationingCancer Screening & TreatmentBob's cancer campaign from beyond the grave Bob's cancer campaign from beyond the grave
By Tony Watts - Editor - 18/06/2007
The UK’s Prostate Cancer Research Foundation has brought Bob Monkhouse “back from the dead” to campaign on their behalf.
In the forty second advertisement, Bob Monkhouse - who died of prostate cancer in 2003, looks back on his own life and death – cracking jokes along the way - through the use of advanced filming and editing techniques and the help of a body double. You can see the ad by clicking on the link below.
The ad – which has the full support of his widow Jackie - is shocking, but with one man every hour dying in Britain from the disease, the campaign is intended to wake people out of their complacency about the “silent killer” disease.
Despite the statistics, there is low general awareness of prostate cancer in the UK – and men need to come to terms with the risk factors and the symptoms. The ‘Give a few bob’ campaign hopes to dramatically increase awareness and raise money for the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation, which aims to fund the best independent research into all aspects of prostate cancer.
WHSmith are providing valuable support by displaying posters and selling Bob button badges (just £1 each) in all stores nationwide. The ‘Give a few bob’ ad will be screened in Vue cinemas before each film, with posters and leaflets in their foyers. There will be over 7,000 outdoor poster sites throughout the UK, with space donated by Clear Channel Outdoor UK and JCDecaux UK. The all-encompassing campaign will also be seen on press ads, tip-up taxi seats, mobiles and direct mail. It will go out virally via email, and visitors to site (linked below) will be able to forward the link on to their friends, so that Bob’s message will reach as many people as possible.
Bob had a joke for everything, even his own death. He said he “always wanted to die like his father, peacefully in his sleep, not like his passengers, screaming and terrified.” In fact, he died of prostate cancer.
Jackie Monkhouse has given the campaign her unstinting support: “Bob laughed his way through life and it’s great, if not a little strange, to see him cracking jokes again! The Prostate Cancer Research Foundation is vital in providing funds for much-needed research into prostate cancer around the world – there is so much work to do, and I am thrilled to be able to help.”
About the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation
The Prostate Cancer Research Foundation was founded as The Prostate Cancer Charitable Trust in 1991 by the late Sir Clive Bourne, himself a prostate cancer sufferer. The PCRF aims to fund the best independent research worldwide into all aspects of prostate cancer, and the unique PCRF forums enable leading prostate cancer scientists, clinicians and practitioners from around the world to disseminate their results and openly share their latest hypotheses on prostate cancer, in order to accelerate scientific breakthroughs in this field.
The PCRF is currently funding seventeen research projects to the amount of £1,302,908, providing sustained funding wherever possible to enable the research projects to reach their fullest potential.
The PCRF has to turn down several applications each year because it currently does not have the funds to support them. Subsequently, these potentially promising research leads are unable to be developed.
The Prostate Cancer Research Foundation is a charity that relies on voluntary income, and estimates that it needs to raise approx £2million each year to fund all the best research projects that apply for funding