Founder Jack Broadley and Treasurer Jessica Rae attended Music for Merrick on Sunday 30th July 2017, a fundraising event in aid of BaggyTrousersUK.

Organiser Joely Mitchell said “I chose to raise money in aid of BaggyTrousersUK as my brother in law, Jamie, is currently fighting Testicular Cancer.

He is 12 months in and still has a long road ahead, but we are all very optimistic.  When we found out that Jamie had cancer, it obviously took us as a family, by total surprise. We were all so shocked and upset, but we’ve all pulled together to be there to support Jamie, Cara and their 3 children in whatever way we can.

I did a google search online to see if there were any charities out there that could provide extra support to Jamie, even just someone who’s fought or fighting it to be able to talk to Jamie, I felt it would be a massive help. It was then that I came across Jack Broadley and the charity he set up BaggyTrousersUK.

After reading his story, I felt that I absolutely had to do something more to support Jamie, but at the same time raise money for BaggyTrousersUK to enable them to keep spreading awareness about how to check yourself for testicular abnormalities that may otherwise go undetected until it’s too late, so I came up with the idea of ‘Music for Merrick’.

After speaking to Jack for some time on the phone and discussing my plans, it was full steam ahead to piece the event together and I am pleased to say that with 6 weeks of tireless planning, we did it!

We had over 400 people through the gates of Hemel Hempstead Football Club and had live music from a local band called UnderView and DJ Dan Cassidy, various food vendors, stall holders and inflatables for the children to play on.

The atmosphere was incredible and despite a 20 minute down-pour, the sun then came out and stayed with us for the rest of the day.

As a result of the event, I, along with my friends, Gemma Reynolds, Ben Whittle, Charlotte Hosier and James Hood, to name a few, managed to raise £817.83 which I am incredibly happy with.

I would now like to make this an annual event as a lot of people that came, asked if we were going to do it again. I feel that with 12 months of planning, instead of 6 weeks, next year’s event will be even bigger and better!!”

Jack said, “I’m so glad that Jamie was able to join us on the day and see how much support he has behind him, Jamie had just finished a round of chemotherapy treatment that morning, he was in high spirits all day! We’re very grateful for the support and funds raised on the day. I would like to personally thank Joely for doing such a great job in organising a fantastic event in such a short amount of time.”

If you would like to organise your own fundraising event in aid of BaggyTrousersUK visit our Fundraise section.

I was your average 21-year-old, girlfriend, healthy lifestyle involved in stock car racing every weekend and doing what an average 21-year-old would do.

I noticed a lump on my left testicle but chose to ignore it for a few days as I thought it was nothing and would just pass. A few days later my girlfriend noticed something also at this point she insisted that I must go to the doctor. Without the persistence of her I’m unsure I would have gone.

I booked a doctor’s appointment online as I was nervous and didn’t want to tell the receptionist I had a lump on my testicle, I went to the doctors on the Friday (June) only to find out I had booked the doctor’s appointment for the September, although the receptionist had seen what I had put on the form and got me an appointment straight away.

I saw the doctor and expressed my concern in which he explained it would probably be just a cyst but would check anyway. The doctor went on to do an examination and was concerned so decided to refer me to Tameside hospital where I saw an oncologist the following Thursday.

The oncologist examined me and assured me “good news it’s not cancer” in which I had a gut feeling that I didn’t believe him. I told the oncologist I didn’t believe him and would like a second opinion then at my request the oncologist arranged an ultrasound on Sunday.

That night I came away with different thoughts and sat down with my mum and told her “I think it is cancer”, I didn’t know at this point but my gut was telling me that it was. We had a chat and I told her I was going to kick its ass and that’s the way I wanted to deal with it.

I attended the ultra sound with my mum, whilst she waited in the waiting room I went in and I asked the technician all sorts of questions and what he was looking at so I could try and understand it too, once he completed the scan he then talked through what he found and explained to my mum (who is a nurse) in medical terms.

After this my mum went away and spoke to some people she knew in the medical world and I got an appointment at The Christie the following Wednesday. I went on to do more scans and tests, they sat me in the room, with my mum and dad and this was the point they told me I have cancer. They wanted to operate on me as soon as possible although they said the next day was probably too soon so they will be doing it on Thursday 9th July 2015.

On the day of the 9th I was tense and nervous but excited as I felt this journey would end in the way in which I would no longer have cancer but open a new door as I could use my experience to meet new people and new experiences, once I came around after the anaesthetic I was very sleepy but determined to go home as soon as possible (I now realise I should have stayed in overnight) but wanted to prove to myself and everyone else I hadn’t been beaten!

It was at this point that I received overwhelming support from the racing community through Facebook and letters through the post. Although I was very determined to get back to ‘normal’ and get back into racing, I soon realised that maybe I couldn’t go back as soon as I’d thought. This was the biggest struggle for me as I couldn’t do things straight away and as well as I could before cancer, especially not being able to race.

I was riding a wave for a few months but eventually that wave crashed and with a huge help from family and people at the Christie I managed to pick my feet up and turn my experience back into something positive which I wanted to do from the very day of starting this rollercoaster.

I set about getting in touch with various cancer charities and became a CRUK ambassador, in which I have had some amazing experiences and met some people of all ages that have gone through similar experiences.

When I had my first operation I was asked if I would like a prosthetic, but unfortunately they didn’t have time to get one for me. So, I was told once my scar tissue had recovered enough I could have one put in. This happened 12 months after my first operation. I felt for me this would be a closure of my treatment.

As I sit here writing this 16 month after being told I had cancer I am finally preparing myself for getting back into my stock-car and preparing for next year’s full season. Its only now I realize at how important racing is to me and my life. Racing was one of my biggest drive to get back to full health and not just to bow out without one last shot.

Although I’ve had a bit of a rollercoaster ride, Cancer has opened new doors and a chance to meet new people and given me a purpose to which I feel is to promote the education and awareness of a cancer that I have had but before I had never known anything about.

It’s now I would like to thank the people who have helped me and are still helping me though this small hurdle and would like to thank Jack at BaggyTrousersUK for encouraging me to write this.

If I didn’t have the support from my girlfriend, my family and racing I wouldn’t have got checked so soon.

My story could have ended differently, but thanks to quick acting I managed to kick cancer in the ass.

Yep! – We did it, we was granted £856.00 by Bardsley Construction via Forever Manchester!

So what do we plan to do with it?

We will be running a targeted social media campaign at males aged between 15 and 35 in Tameside and surrounding areas.

The population of Tameside is approximately 219,000+, with 49% of this number being males, we have a great audience to target and get the all-important message of check your testicles and how to perform a self-examination if they’re unsure of how to do this by using our website.

Our ultimate aim and goal with this funding is to increase awareness about testicular cancer predominantly in the Tameside area, we have found that if one person shares what we are posting then this can go to different areas and a much larger reach and engagement will be achieved.

We also attend awareness sessions and events where we set up an awareness stand with pop up banners, information leaflets, prosthetic testicles with tumors on and currently we have plain table cloths, we’re going to purchase two table cloths with the charity logo printed and the important message “Have the GUTS to check your NUTS” on there.

Here is a bit more information about the social media campaign we’re launching soon:

We plan to run a consistent social media campaign over the next seven months which will see us spending on average £100 per month in social media advertisements, from this we expect to achieve a total reach/engagement of over 15,000+ males. The approach we’re taking with the campaign is aimed to get the message out of how important it is to detect testicular cancer early in a humorous manner so that it reduces the embarrassment for males not wanting to go to the doctors or check themselves.

We’d like to thank Bardsley Construction and Forever Manchester for granting the money and helping BaggyTrousersUK move forward with the awareness.

In this post I’m going to be talking about why and how I set up the charity BaggyTrousersUK.

I was diagnosed with stage two testicular cancer that spread to nearby lymph nodes in my abdominal area, the treatment to cure this lasted over 4-6 months.

I had no idea what I was checking for, when I attended a doctor’s appointment for a viral infection the doctor asked if there was anything else worrying me, it was at that point I let the professional take over and check for me to be sure and put my mind at rest.

Within a matter of days I was sent for blood tests and an ultrasound scan – it happened so fast before I knew it I was diagnosed with cancer aged 21.

Luckily they managed to find the cancer before it spread further onto other parts of my body such as lungs and brain. After finishing the treatment, a question wouldn’t leave my mind until I did something about it – how many other young men like myself are out there worried, not wanting to go to the doctors and unsure what they’re checking for.

I decided to do some research into the statistics and the other charities out there raising awareness of the condition and noticed there wasn’t any awareness going on in Greater Manchester.

With the support from other charities I decided to set up BaggyTrousersUK with the vision and aim to increase awareness around a condition that almost took my life and reduce late diagnosis by promoting regular self checking.

In the past twelve months I’ve met some amazing people with the same vision and aims as me, there was a lot of doubt at the beginning whether I was going to do this, it wasn’t a case of proving people wrong just merely getting on with it and finding that inner passion to raise awareness.

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho

If detected early, the chances of survival are second to none, there’s also reduced side effects and less-intense treatment, this also reduces the risk of long-term side effects too.