Inside our first joint Health Equity Think Tank with Movember

On 23 April, Movember and Prostate Cancer UK came together to host their first joint Health Equity Think Tank.

The purpose of this Think Tank was to draw on the expertise of researchers, healthcare professionals, men with lived experience, and patient advocates to tackle gaps in equity in the UK.

Discussions focused on three key areas across three separate sections; Black health equity, geography & deprivation and navigation & decision support. These areas spanned diagnostic and treatment pathways. 

This Think Tank was not designed to address every equity issue, but to support real choices about where collective action will matter most, with Movember committing to act on the outcomes of this process.

Bringing evidence, expertise, and lived experience together

Through the Think Tank we combined expert insight, research, and lived experience to have an evidence-based discussion that was informed by real-world impact.

Movember partners Anne-Cecil Berthier and Dr Karen Robb set out the scale and ambition of the initiative, while keynote speaker Professor Habib Naqvi MBE, CEO of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, framed the wider challenge of health inequalities in the UK and the collective role needed to address them.

Lived experience was central throughout, with men sharing personal perspectives that reinforced the urgency for change. This was supported by emerging research, including insights from Prostate Cancer UK’s Interim Head of Data and Evidence on the BALANCE study—led by the European Association of Urology’s Patient Office and a global research network, including Prostate Cancer UK and the Institute of Cancer Research—which is building a clearer picture of Black men’s experiences of prostate cancer to inform more effective interventions.

What's next

The next steps are to distil findings in a public facing report underlining clear agreement on priority equity challenges around Black health equity, geography and deprivation and navigation and decision support, alongside equity-led solutions across those three key areas. Participants will also be invited to contribute further input beyond the event to help shape, refine, and strengthen these priorities. This will place Movember and partners in a position to consider how best to deliver on these areas.