1.3 billion steps and £1.7million raised as 7,000 march towards a better future for men.

Daily walks made all the difference during lockdown - but 7,191 of our marchers made them go a lot, lot further last month by casually strolling their way to over £1.7 million raised for men with prostate cancer and their families. Phenomenal. 

March the Month challenged you to walk 11,000 steps a day to represent the lives lost to prostate cancer each year. 

It’s not easy! 11,000 daily steps is a lot of walking. There were bad days and there were blisters, but the camaraderie in the thriving Facebook group was a continual inspiration - filled with hilarity, heart-wrenching stories and plenty of dog photos,

Reading through your stories, the overriding theme was one of gratitude. People were thankful for the support, thankful for each other, thankful for the (sometimes) good weather, thankful for nature, thankful to be out of the house! It was beautiful. And frankly, we’re a little sad it’s over, but there’s plenty more where it came from. 

For now, we say thank you to everyone who marches and donated - from Royal tweets to a song about a prostatectomy.

Thanks from Nigel Adkins and the LMA

It was a pleasure to see the beaming face of Charlton Athletic’s manager in his super motivational videos every morning (also handy that he’s a physio when the legs got a bit stiff too). The former Tranmere Rovers and Wigan Athletic goalie was one of many managers who took on the challenge with the League Managers Association. Here’s the final update from the big man.

Good morning. Start again. Day 31/31 ⁦Thank you for the donations so far ⁦@ProstateUK⁩ ⁦@LMA_Managers⁩ ⁦@CAFCofficial⁩ #MenWeAreWithYou #MarchTheMonth https://t.co/8pfTJFld0X pic.twitter.com/hpR6Vl0O0B

— Nigel Adkins (@TheNigelAdkins) March 31, 2021

Thanks from the Duchess of Gloucester

Our patron the Duchess of Gloucester and her husband The Duke Of Gloucester joined our ranks.

The Duchess found it tough like everyone else, as she told supporters Kerry, Peter, and our CEO when sharing notes on their zoom call. “We did try and do it all in one go. And it was exhausting, but it is alway jolly nice when we come home in late afternoon. Luckily, we live by a paddock, where we could get a morning walk in, and then do the rest in the park in the afternoon.”

Our Research Director and Run the Monther Matt Hobbs on what matters most:

“The pandemic had a huge impact on our ability to raise funds, and put research at risk last year. It's been a worrying time, but that worry has gradually been transformed into hope and positivity by the thousands of people taking on challenges like Run, Cycle and March the Month. 

The money raised by these challenges, and donations from our supporters, meant that in a year where we'd had to pull back on a lot of our research plans, investing only around £2 million into new research projects, we're actually now closer to investing £6 million! This is just incredible, it was unthinkable for most of 2020, and it’s all because of you, getting out there each day and spreading the word. It'll have such a massive impact for men with prostate cancer. On their behalf I say thank you. 

I was proud to join you all and make my own contribution to the crucial fundraising that powers the research we fund by taking on my own Run The Month challenge. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can march, run and cycle shoulder-to-shoulder, so we can get our research budget back up to pre-pandemic levels and beyond. I can't wait.”