Chestfield Golf Club in Kent answered Prostate Cancer UK’s call to take part in golf’s biggest fundraising challenge – The Big Golf Race – to help save men’s lives and raised over £25,000 by putting on a club-led themed day along with other Captain’s Charity events.
Over the last year, Men’s Club Captain David Wells, a veteran of the golf industry, has led the charge in not only raising money for Prostate Cancer UK, but also encouraging members of the club to get tested themselves.
“Overall, we understand that 40 members got themselves tested and out of that 40, at least five guys needed treatment for the cancer,” he said. “One guy who got tested on the back of it went into radiation treatment just last week, while others are still getting tested. So just imagine what can be done if every golf club captain adopted a similar approach.”
Since The Big Golf Race was launched in 2020, more than 10,000 golfers have raised over £3.4m to help fund life-saving research to radically improve the way prostate cancer is diagnosed and treated.
“My motivation for supporting Prostate Cancer UK started 12 years ago when my one of my dearest friends retired. Within a few weeks, he decided to have a health check and unfortunately discovered he had the early signs of the prostate cancer. More recently when I found that his life was sadly coming to an end, I was in the frame to become captain of the golf club and as every club member knows, captains nominate a charity for fundraising during their year in the role.
“I was so impressed by my friend’s attitude when living with prostate cancer, that there was no other charity that I wanted to become involved with. However, I wanted to look at it slightly differently from conventional charity efforts, because I’ve seen how a worthy cause doesn’t always relate to all the club members.
“Once in the captaincy role, I put an action plan together to ensure my message got across. If you came to the clubhouse, you couldn’t miss the Prostate Cancer UK signs and the reminders for men to get tested. In conjunction with the Club Professional Warren Bennett, we put a sheet up on the main notice board urging male members to go and get a test…and then put their name up on the board when they’d been tested.
“I started it off by putting my name up, followed by Warren when we both got our negative test results back. Soon after our names went up, we started to see more and more people putting their names on the sheet to provide physical evidence of its impact within the club,” he added.
Without alienating the younger members of the club, Wells sought the help of the captain of the league team, James Dengate, a respected 2-handicap player in his early 30’s who represents the club’s younger generation.
Dengate took it upon himself to seek the help of his fellow league players and with the club’s help, organised a 72-hole Big Golf Race marathon with eight players taking part in a medal format.
“My boss at work said he was so proud of my efforts in setting up this challenge, that matched the money we’ve raised for the charity. So it turned out from being around £3,000 raised in The Big Golf Race by guys who had a great time doing so, to £6,500,” said Dengate.
This year, the leading men’s health charity is urging more golfers to take part in The Big Golf Race to help save dads, grandads, brothers, uncles and friends from a disease that affects 1 in 8 men in the UK.
Golf clubs around the UK can raise money to help fund research to find better tests to save men’s lives by taking on the challenge, which consists of four rounds and 26 miles of walking in a day/half marathon, two rounds of golf in a day and 13 miles of walking/ultra marathon, which consists of 100 rounds in a day and a whopping 35 miles of walking.
Prostate Cancer UK ambassador and former Masters champion Danny Willett is also backing the epic challenge and hopes 2024 is another record-breaking year for The Big Golf Race.
He said: “The golf community’s response to The Big Golf Race has been incredible, so it’s no surprise that it’s now the biggest golf fundraising challenge in the UK. It just goes to show just how far golfers will go to raise money for an incredible cause and I’ll be doing all I can to help them this year.”
Seren Evans, Head of Events and Community Fundraising at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “We’re delighted with how many golfers, clubs and partners have embraced The Big Golf Race and helped to build it into a fun yet challenging way of helping to help save men’s lives. Prostate cancer is a disease killing one man every 45 minutes – roughly the time it takes to play three holes of golf – and it sadly exists in every golf club.
“But with the support of golf clubs like Chestfield, and the thousands of others like them who have conquered The Big Golf Race, we’re able to continue to fund research into better tests and treatment for prostate cancer and keep men in the game for longer,” she added.
To join the thousands of other golfers in taking on Prostate Cancer UK’s Big Golf Race, visit prostatecanceruk.org/TheBigGolfRace.