Kevin backs RUTTP

A man whose cancer battle has aired on national TV has thrown his weight behind RUTTP?, the York event that we help to raise cash and awareness of the condition.

Former head teacher Kevin McAleese CBE, Chair of the City of York Safeguarding Adults Board, has terminal prostate cancer and is determined to live life to the full following his diagnosis.

His story featured in a recent BBC2 documentary, A Time To Live, which examined how people like him react at the knowledge that they do not have long to live.

Kevin is anxious to promote awareness of prostate cancer, which he feels has an unjustifiably lower profile than many cancers even though it is a major cause of death in men.   He also feels than men are less likely than women to act on health concerns.

“Women are used to being poked and prodded and men aren’t,” he said. “Men are a lot more private and unwilling to talk about things.”

Kevin praised R U Taking the P?, the annual males-only York 5K, for promoting prostate awareness, supporting York Against Cancer and helping fund prostate cancer research by Professor Norman Maitland at York University.

“I think it’s an absolutely brilliant idea,” he said. “Norman is doing wonderful work and organisations like York Against Cancer do a great job. “

Kevin had hoped to be at this year’s RUTTP? race at Rowntree Park on Father’s Day, June 18, but his prognosis has deteriorated and he has family commitments that mean he is unable to attend.

But he is rooting for all this year’s runners and hoping for a record-breaking 2017 event.

There is still time to sign up for the run at Rowntree Park on Sunday. Just go to http://www.yorkagainstcancer.org.uk/events/r-u-taking-p-18th-june