Friday 1 June 2001
Celebrity chefs have joined in the fight to beat male cancers by creating some mouth-watering tomato recipes for The Institute of Cancer Research's everyman male cancer awareness month in June.
The move follows the latest scientific research claiming that lycopene - the compound that gives the tomato its appealing red colour - could play a preventative role in prostate cancer which kills about 9,500 men in the UK each year.
Processed tomato products, such as ketchup, soup and pizza toppings, are thought to be particularly beneficial.
Among the chefs who have so far backed the campaign are Antony Worrall Thompson, Ross Burden, Lesley Waters and Brian Turner whose recipes range from a chilled tomato bisque and crab and tomato hearts to lamb cutlets with tomato and ginger compote and tomato and basil stew.
And the man who inspired them? Prostate cancer sufferer Brian Smith who recently walked the South West Coastal Path to raise money for research into male cancers. It was while he was appearing on the BBC-tv programme "Ready, Steady, Cook" that the idea for the tomato recipes took shape.
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Notes to editors
For more information please contact The Institute of Cancer Research press office on 0207 970 6030.
- The everyman campaign was set up by The Institute of Cancer Research in 1997 to raise awareness of and funding for male cancers. June will mark the beginning of the fourth everyman - male cancer awareness month.
- Copies of the tomato recipes from some of Britain's favourite celebrity chefs are attached.
- The Institute of Cancer Research has recently been awarded one of only two Prostate Cancer Collaborative Grants by the National Cancer Research Institute.