Prostate Cancer UK have confirmed a massive 100,000 men have checked their risk of the disease with over 70,000 discovering they were ‘high-risk’ thanks largely to a huge campaign linked to the Paddy Power World Darts Championship across the past month.
THE BIG 180 campaign saw Paddy and the PDC engage in a groundbreaking charity partnership in a bid to drive awareness of the deadly disease.
Paddy pledged to donate £1,000 every time a 180 was scored throughout the marathon tournament which came to a showdown between wonderkid Luke Littler and Luke Humphries, with the latter ultimately emerging victorious on Wednesday night.
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With the tally of maximums scored reaching the 914 mark, the big man committed to rounding up his donation up and sign a £1 MILLION cheque for Prostate Cancer UK. Woof.
Paddy, the PDC & Prostate Cancer UK succeeded in raising huge awareness within the darts community, resulting in 100,000 men to use their 30-second online risk checker over the course of THE BIG 180 Campaign, helping men understand their risk and what they can do about it.
Vitally, over 70,000 of them were identified as being in the high-risk category and 15,500 will have a PSA blood test, meaning THE BIG 180 campaign has potentially saved many lives.
Prostate Cancer UK Chief Executive Laura Kerby said: “With £1m raised and incredible and extensive awareness too, we’re thrilled at the success of THE BIG 180 campaign and are hugely grateful to Paddy Power, the PDC and the players for their brilliant efforts bringing it to life.
“It’s all about knowing the numbers when playing darts, but not enough people are aware of the harsh statistics about prostate cancer. One in eight men will be affected by this disease, and that’s one statistic that brings home why this campaign was so important.”
Ms Kerby explained that the charity’s collaboration with the PDC and Paddy Power put their cause at the heart of the action.
Prostate cancer is curable if caught early, but early-stage prostate cancer often has no symptoms, so it is vital that men know their risk.
It’s incredible to see that 100,000 people have now completed Paddy’s simple online risk checker, and more than 70 per cent of those are high risk.
“These figures are a five-fold increase from this time last year so there’s little doubt that the darts community have played a huge part – and almost certainly saved lives,” she said.
Humphries beat Littler 7-4 on Wednesday night to take the Sid Waddell Trophy and also the new Ballon d’Art trophy commissioned by Paddy and awarded to the player who hit the most 180s and raised the most amount of cash for Prostate Cancer UK.
Having personally scored 73 of them himself, the award meant all the more for Humphries, whose partner’s dad has recently been diagnosed with the disease. Humphries also graciously pledged to make his own donation privately to the cause from his prize money.
“My father-in-law has battled prostate cancer, he went and got it checked out early, so this is a close thing to my heart,” he said.
“For me to have added £73,000 is just fantastic. It is very, very close to my heart and as a collective the players have added quite a lot of money, I won’t say the figure, but I am going to donate a bit from my prize money as well.”
All money raised throughout the Paddy Power World Darts Championship will fund lifesaving research to diagnose men sooner and improve the lives of men affected by the most common cancer in men.
It takes 30 seconds to answer three questions to check your prostate cancer risk. Do it now by clicking here.
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