Media Talkers
Share your experiences
The Prostate Cancer Charity’s busy Media and PR team works closely with a whole range of media, from national newspapers, to women’s magazines, trade journals and local television and radio stations, and receives many calls for information and help in shaping stories and features each week.
Many journalists are looking to bring their pieces to life by featuring the personal experiences of someone who has been touched by prostate cancer. Individual testimonies always add a great deal more weight to news items than facts and figures alone.
Through its successful Media Talkers scheme, the Media and PR Team puts journalists in touch with the right people, who will be able to demonstrate the impact of the disease upon their lives, or highlight a particular aspect of prostate cancer, such as the side effects of a particular treatment or the effect it can have on relationships.
The team is eager to hear from anyone who is willing to speak publicly, through the media, about prostate cancer, whether they have been diagnosed themselves, or if they have supported a partner, father or friend through their treatment.
What is a Media Talker?
Media Talkers are people who are willing to share their experience - good or bad - of prostate cancer with the media to help raise awareness of the disease. Anyone signing up to the scheme will join a network of men - and women - across the UK, who give interviews about their own journey with prostate cancer, the issues they are passionate about and perhaps the support they have received from the Charity.
Why become a Media Talker?
Media coverage about the Charity or prostate cancer is very powerful. It can raise awareness, call people to action or make them aware where support and information is available. For instance, many interviews featuring our Media Talkers, whether they have appeared in The Sun, Yours magazine, on GMTV or on a regional radio phone-in, result in a considerable increase in calls to the specialist nurses, who staff our free and confidential Helpline. These calls are from people who have been living with real worries that they did not know how to address, or who to talk to about.
Who can join?
Anyone who has been touched by prostate cancer in some way, and who is willing to share their story, is welcomed to the Media Talkers scheme. Talking to the media is not as daunting as you may think, because, mainly, you are simply recounting what happened to you, how you felt about it and what you would like others to be aware of. Our Media and PR Team is only a telephone call away and will be there to guide you through each interview and will explain what kinds of questions you may be asked, to provide helpful facts and information and discuss what the particular audience may be interested in.
How do I sign up?
If you are interested in becoming a Media Talker for The Prostate Cancer Charity please email claire.blackburn@prostate-cancer.org.uk or call 020 8222 7687 to find out more. You will be sent a simple form to fill in, which should capture all the information the team needs to understand more about your experiences and to put you forward for the right interviews.
Media Talkers in the press
Here are some fantastic examples of a range of interviews our Media Talkers have taken on for the Charity.
ITV's This Morning
Veteran Media Talker Phil Kissi, 51, from London, has appeared in numerous interviews for the Charity. In November 2009, he appeared on the famous sofa at ITV’s This Morning, alongside Dr Chris Steele. Speaking to presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, Phil talked about his experiences of being diagnosed at a relatively young age and his struggle to be tested for the disease. His interview was part of a wider feature on This Morning showcasing Movember, the sponsored moustache growing event, and is a great example of where a broadcaster was keen to feature real life experiences to add meaning to the piece.
The Times
The team matched relatively new Media Talkers Andy and Joanne Christie with a request for a feature to highlight the impact the disease can have on relationships. The couple, of East Sussex, appeared in a special supplement about prostate cancer produced by Raconteur Media, distributed to more than 563,000 people, in The Times. They discussed the journey that they have faced together following Andy's diagnosis of prostate cancer, with the ups and downs of coming to terms with the disease and the road to recovery.
The Daily Mail
Journalist Carrie Rogers, 53, from Bury St Edmunds called the Media and PR Team early this year, eager to do something to support the Charity after the loss of her husband Graham to prostate cancer. Carrie signed up the Media Talkers scheme straight away and was put in touch with a freelance journalist looking to illustrate the issues around PSA testing through a personal account. The result was a poignant feature spread in the Daily Mail, which describes how Carrie and Graham’s fight with prostate cancer, which she attributes to the fact that neither of them were aware of the symptoms of the disease and so did not go to the doctors in time.
Leyton Guardian
Environmental health officer, Stewart Monk, 61, from Leyton joined the Charity's Media Talker programme after undergoing hormone therapy treatment for prostate cancer. Stewart lent his support to the Charity's Hampered by Hormones? campaign after learning the results of a survey, conducted by the Charity, which found that one in two men on hormone therapy do not receive enough support and information to guide them through their treatment. Stewart was interviewed by his local newspaper, the Leyton Guardian, about his own experiences of hormone therapy, which allowed the paper to highlight the issues of the campaign in a much more poignant way.