Darren completes his ballsy Testicle Tour
4 July 2008
Testicular cancer survivor, Darren Couchman, made a splash on Friday 4 July in London’s Trafalgar Square by sitting in a bath of nuts to raise awareness of the disease, and as a finale to his ‘Testicle Tour’ of the UK.
The 34-year-old author, who goes by the nickname ‘one ball’, bathed in walnuts as a climax to his tour of 66 crown jewel related places to raise cash for the Everyman Male Cancer Campaign. Tour highlights included places such as COCKING, BALL, LOWER SWELL, PENISTONE, WILLEY and BELL END.
The intrepid explorer was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 27 after discovering a swelling in one of his testicles. After ignoring the problem for a few weeks, Darren was warned that any further delay to treatment could have led to his death, a message he is keen to spread to other men.
He said: “People might think I’m nuts but I’m the type of bloke who likes to grab the ball by its horns. Bathing in nuts is a real laugh but I’m hoping to get a serious message across as well. Men need to check themselves for testicular cancer because it can be life-threatening if it’s not spotted early enough.”
The adventurer gave men lessons on testicular cancer from his bath tub with the aid of a pair of fake testicles to help improve their checking technique.
To find out more visit www.everyman-campaign.org or www.onelumportwo.org.uk
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Media contact: Dominique Vincent on 020 7153 5312, 07721 747900 or email dominique.vincent@icr.ac.uk
Notes to Editor
- Everyman is a campaign run by The Institute of Cancer Research, to raise awareness and fund research into testicular and prostate cancer at The Everyman Centre – Europe’s first and only centre dedicated to male cancer research.
- The Institute of Cancer Research is Europe’s leading cancer research centre with expert scientists working on cutting edge research. It was founded in 1909 to carry out research into the causes of cancer and to develop new strategies for its prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care. Website at: www.icr.ac.uk
- Prostate cancer has overtaken lung cancer to become the most common cancer in men affecting almost 35,000 men every year in the UK. One man dies of prostate cancer in the UK every hour.
- Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer in men aged between 15 and 44, with about 2,000 cases a year in the UK. Incidence is increasing dramatically – by almost 4-fold in the last 50 years, but thanks to advances made at Everyman, testicular cancer is 99% curable if caught early, and with treatment the overall cure rate is 95%.
