Roger's tough walk

Bexhill resident, Consultant Urologist Roger Plail is set to join 11 other intrepid walkers on a gruelling 24 hour trek next week. (June 23rd).

Mr. Plail, 55, who practises at the General District Hospital in Eastbourne and his friends, including colleagues and patients, are aiming to walk the punishing 42 mile Lyke Wake Walk in Yorkshire in just 24 hours in a bid to help raise in excess of 100,000 to for Prostate Research Campaign UK.

The charity is the only one in the UK to raise awareness and funds for research into all prostate diseases as well as organising free seminars countrywide for health care professionals to keep them up to date on the latest developments in prostate disease and care.

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It is not the first time Mr. Plail, who lives in Whydown with wife Danielle and two children, and also practises at the Conquest Hospital in Hastings, has set himself a challenging physical target in aid of Prostate Research Campaign UK. In previous years, he has climbed Mts. Kilmanjaro and Kinibalu for the charity, and hiked 85 miles coast to coast across Hadrian's Wall. Last year, he completed the West Highland Way trek from Milngavie near Glasgow to Fort William in the shadow of Ben Nevis, in just five days.

He says: "I've always enjoyed walking and keeping myself fit and I aim to encourage other people to do the same thing. This walk crosses the North Yorkshire Moors, starting near Osmotherley and finishing on the coast near Ravenscar.

It's not the first time I've undertaken The Lyke Wake Walk, though. I did it once before, 30 years ago and completed it successfully. I hope that I'll be able to do the same again."

Every year, 32,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Around 10,000 die, many because the disease is not diagnosed soon enough. Half of all men over the age of 50 will contract some form of prostate disease and many young men suffer from prostatitis, a painful inflammation of the prostate.

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Says Mr. Plail: "One of my main aims in undertaking these challenges is to encourage people around the UK to get walking. It really is the healthiest form of exercise. More and more people seem to have been undertaking charity walks during the last few years, which is absolutely great."

If you would like to sponsor Mr. Plail, please send cheques made payable to Prostate Research Campaign UK at 10 Northfields Prospect, Putney Bridge Road, London SW18 1PE. For further information about the work of the charity or prostate diseases, contact Prostate Research Campaign UK at the above address or visit the Website www.prostate-research.org.uk

For photographs of Roger Plail, please contact him directly on 07949 536944 or email [email protected]

For further information, please contact Andrea Kon, Media Consultant to Prostate Research Campaign UK on 020 8349 4871 or 07774 421 934