Monday 5 March 2001
Rio Ferdinand, Jamie Redknapp, Darren Anderton and Paul Ince have teamed up with other Premiership stars and managers to raise money for research into testicular and prostate cancer…by auctioning off their underpants for charity at www.bigfanof.com
The stars, whose personal websites are all featured on bigfanof.com, include players Ferdinand (Leeds United), Redknapp and Didi Hamman (Liverpool), Ince (Middlesbrough), Anderton (Spurs), Muzzy Izzet (Leicester City) and Gary Speed (Newcastle United) as well as managers Harry Redknapp (West Ham) and Jim Smith (Derby County). The participants will each be donating a pair of their very own underpants – washed, of course - and signed ready for the auction.
The unique auction, accessed via bigfanof.com and hosted by Europe’s premier on-line auctioneer QXL ricardo plc (www.QXL.com), begins at 9am on Saturday 3rd March and will be seeking to raise money for the everyman campaign - The Institute of Cancer Research's national campaign to raise awareness of and funding for male cancers.
"Men know more about breast cancer than male cancers," said Kate Husher from everyman, "yet testicular cancer is the most common cancer to affect young men between the ages of 20 and 35 and is 96% curable if detected in the early stages."
"Men have been made more aware of testicular cancer since the case of Celtic player Alan Stubbs came to light, but awareness is still worryingly low with a MORI poll showing that over two thirds (68%) of young men questioned said they know little or nothing about it."
Chris Bromage, MD of BigFanOf.com said "The idea came about because our personalities had heard of the testicular cancer issue via the Alan Stubbs case and wanted to do something about it. We sat down with a few of them and came up with this idea."
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For further information about everyman please contact:-
Kate Husher, Institute of Cancer Research, Tel: 0171 970 6030 email: [email protected]
For Bigfanof.com contact::-
Anthony Kayne, Cohn & Wolf,
Tel: 020 7331 5300 email: [email protected]
For QXL.com contact:-
CJ Wilson, Tel: 020 8962 7321, email: [email protected]