A mini-cricket tournament to help combat cancer amongst men in the black and minority ethnic (BME) community took place in Preston this weekend. The tournament aimed to raise awareness of cancer and the importance of early intervention, particularly amongst BME men, and to support people affected by cancer. Four teams from the Indian and Pakistani communities, as well as a side from Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and Macmillan Cancer Support, went head-to-head in the tournament, which aimed to raise awareness of cancer, the importance of early intervention and the support available. The event was held at Preston Cricket Club on Sunday 12th August, with Team Pakistan crowned winners of the tournament. The event was organised by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, Preston-based charity Cancer Help, and Preston United Youth Development Programme, and supported by Macmillan Cancer Support. Omar Khan, from Preston United Youth Development Programme, came up with the idea to stage the cricket tournament to help engage with the black and minority ethnic community and raise awareness of cancer, particularly among BME men. He said: “Cancer can be a taboo subject within black and ethnic minority communities, and especially men can find it hard to speak up and ask for help. We hope this event helped to bridge the gap and helped them to talk about cancer. We don’t want any community to miss out when the help and support is there for them. “We wanted to highlight that prevention and early intervention is so important, and the sooner BME men get checked out the better, but we also want to stress that a cancer diagnosis is not the end of the world. By staging this cricket tournament, we hoped to get these communities together so they could talk to us and tell us what they want and need, whilst at the same time enjoying a great game of cricket.” During the day there were also experts on hand from Cancer Help, Bowel Cancer Screening Programme and Macmillan Cancer Support, as well as doctors and pharmacists, to answer any questions or concerns about cancer. Jeanette Smalley, General Manager, Cancer Help, said, “There is a lot of help out there for people affected by cancer, most of which is free as indeed are our services.” Liz Jennings, Macmillan Service User Involvement & Insight Coordinator at the Living With and Beyond Cancer Project at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, added: “We worked with the black and minority ethnic community in Preston to stage this exciting one day cricket tournament to raise awareness of cancer and the importance of early intervention, particularly amongst BME men and to support people affected by cancer. “The event was a lot of fun, and also provided vital health information and support to the BME community, and we hope the tournament will now become an annual event.”
