Chances are you will have heard of the FOPS even if you don’t know what they do. Chorleywood based group Friends of Prostate Sufferers should win a prize for making the most noise about their cause. The FOPS gang, led by founder Bob Arthy, campaign with a vengeance and last year was an eventful year where awareness was raised even more.

In early March last year they organised a sellout farewell concert for Australia’s ‘First Lady of Jazz’, Janet Seidel and her Trio who had played two fundraising concerts for FOPS whilst resident in the UK. Later that month FOPS made their presence felt at two Open Days for Prostate Sufferers – at Hillingdon Hospital and at the Sheraton Hotel.

Then, under the guidance of professional accountant Nick Corden, the FOPS were awarded Charitable Status by HMRC. In April FOPS campaigner Jim Spence, together with Bob, gave a lively presentation on the charity to the Lynda Jackson Prostate Sufferers at Mount Vernon Hospital.

In early summer, active FOPS members Gabrielle and Dennis Goffin kindly hosted the first FOPS Support Group meeting in their home. The gathering was attended by thirty guests who enjoyed music, talks and socialising and the evening’s success prompted the Group to continue holding monthly meetings. The Goffins, with some neighbourly help, then leafleted Chorleywood exhorting mid-aged males to get a PSA test at our Pharmacies - and 65 or more did just that.

Come October, Jim, Dennis and Bob found themselves in front of Three Counties Radio’ Microphones. They even sang live on air on the Nick Coffer show.

A few hairier men were in evidence around Chorleywood in November as FOPS joined in the moustache growing as part of the nationwide Movember fundraiser to raise awareness of Prostate cancer. At the end of the month they assembled at Rootz Brasserie for a MovemberTop of the FOPS fundraising night and joined in some enthusiastic singing with musicians Mick and Donna Flinn. The audience raised over £360 which was shared between Movember and the FOPS Charity.

Saturday December 1st saw Roger Foord - "Freeman of the City of London" - taking time off from walking his sheep over Tower Bridge - as is a Freemans' right - to load up his car with cooking utensils and food before arriving at Chenies Cricket Club mid-afternoon and starting the ‘Big Mexican Cook-In’.

The Mick Flinn Band were tuning, Fooge sorting out his Bar, when Jim and Bob arrived to put out tables and chairs for the chosen fifty guests.. The evening got off to a great start most asking for seconds of Roger’s delicious food. The Mick Flinn Band thrilled us with their music and soon most were dancing… with attitude! Then the FOPS Choir gave their inaugural presentation of life in the trenches on Christmas Eve 1914…and there were few dry eyes in the Club when the strains of Silent Night faded away.

December saw the public launch of the FOPS Choir who staged a unique performance of Silent Night at Chorleywood Christmas Festival, making a statement about men, war and the challenges facing mankind and then repeating with a performance at Long Island and finishing with a flourish at St Michael’s Church after Matins on the Sunday before Christmas.

But FOPS' greatest coup to date (and it could even be a world record) was organising a Roadshow at The Memorial Hall aimed at men of a certain age. The evening included a blood test, a Q&A session with Alvan Pope and Julian Shah, the FOPS President and Vice-President - who happen to be two of our nation’s leading Urologists. They also gave individual counselling to all those men who tests were on the high side. Men of 50+yrs travelled from miles around to get their PSA levels (prostate specific antigen hormone,(released by prostate cells) checked. Eighty two were measured over 3½ hrs –surely a new world record! The new Mediwatch Bioscanner machines deliver a PSA result in 15 minutes. There were seven Bioscanners run by pharmacists Hitesh Dodhia and Pradip Pandya with help from nurses Shona and Helen from The Health Centre and the Bioscanner specialist Dulcie Hardwick from Mediwatch in Warwick, who made the round trip to chase the world record.

Out of those tested at the Memorial Hall, eight registered red on the machines, and of those, two could have an issue.

"Well, keeping our main aims of prostate awareness and helping sufferers is paramount." says Bob, "so another Prostate Roadshow (going for the century in the 3½ hrs available) is one initiative and getting more usage of our Bioscanners is essential. Other ideas include reforming the choir to sing other songs with inner meanings like Rolf Harris’s "Two Little Boys"

The possibility of a Presentation at the Reform Club with music by a group of top London Medical Consultants is intriguing as is increasing our membership so we can encourage more men to overcome this horrid yet beatable Cancer so that they in turn can then encourage other men to fight off the Tiger...”