Upon the renewal of our partnership with Prostate Cancer UK, we talk to our relationship manager, Jake Maloney-Cox. Jake has been assisting Club Insure with our Prostate Cancer UK partnership for four years, and is now the Senior Corporate Partnerships Executive at the charity.
Club Insure donate £5 per new or renewed policy. Our mission is to raise awareness of prostate cancer and showcase the important work Prostate Cancer UK does. We want to make sure more men know the risk factors, know when to see their GP and how to receive treatment.
Read More about Club Insurer’s Partnership with Prostate Cancer UK
Jake Maloney-Cox and Club Insure
Please recount your pathway within Prostate Cancer UK
I started off working as a volunteer, doing a bit of admin here and there – I’d recently come back from travelling and realised I want to do something a bit more meaningful with my life.
I didn’t know too much about prostate cancer before I started, and I completely fell in love with the organisation; the cause really struck a chord with me. Then I found out there were a couple of members of my family who had prostate cancer that hadn’t really been spoken about and it really hit home. It’s crazy that men don’t talk about this issue and more needs to be done.
Thankfully a job came up within the corporate partnerships team, and I’ve been part of that ever since. This year will be 5 years, having worked through various roles and bigger and bigger partnerships as I’ve gone on. Now I work on the biggest partnerships that we do – it’s been a good ride.
What is it about the Prostate Cancer UK charity that has inspired you?
The work that we do inspires me. Our nurses are probably one of the things I’m proudest of – when you speak to members of the public who have experienced prostate cancer.
You’ll often hear stories of how amazing our nurses have been. It’s a free helpline that anyone can call. Perhaps you’re concerned about a member of your family. You might even have prostate issues. And what they’ll do is they’ll give you support if you need it and they’ll give you the information you need to make choices. You don’t know how hard it is to make decisions until you’re in that situation. The helpline is the most tangible impact we have for most men who are experiencing prostate cancer.
Since working with Prostate Cancer UK, what’s the achievement you are proudest of?
I think seeing a plan for a big fundraising event come together is always absolutely incredible. I’ve worked on some enormous fundraisers; I always say that the hard work is done by our supporters, I just help them and guide them along the way.
Whether it’s the cycle ride that Club Insure have done, or when I helped organise a vintage train ride – They raised nearly a quarter a million pounds. It’s a train that goes all over the country, it sold out in ten minutes. – The different things people come up with to do to support our charity; the things people put themselves through. I’m always amazed.
Sometimes people will come to me with an idea and we’ll expand on that, taking elements from other challenges. It makes each idea that extra bit special. Finding that fun element helps people recognise what you’re doing as something unique.
What are some of your favourite projects with a commercial partner you’ve worked on?
Ones that I’ve got involved in are my favourite. For example I went on a 100 mile cycle ride – I did not know what I’d got myself in for! It was one of the hottest days of the year and there were 75 other cyclists. That was with EDF.
The best one I ever got involved with was a company called Keyline, who did a classic car rally, a Top Gear challenge. We drove, again on one of the hottest days of the year, down to Italy and back. I was in a convertible, which sounds good, but when it’s 40 degrees and there’s no air conditioning you’re getting cooked.
What do commercial partners bring to Prostate Cancer UK beside the funding?
It’s always about us reaching a new audience because it’s all about the fundraising. We always try to go where men go – whether it’s the clubs they’re signed up to through Club Insure, whether it’s going to the darts, football. We always look for partnerships with those who have relationships with our core audience.
By sharing the risk checker, our information literature, or by sharing the risk factors to their customers, it’s amazing to reach a group you might not have ever reached before. I always use the example of railway enthusiasts; because when you think about it, those who are into trains tend to be older men.
What do you enjoy most about working with the commercial partners?
The range and scale that the job offers. We work with customers, with employees, with clients who want to sponsor events. There’s a lot more that we can offer when putting together something really impressive – it gives you bigger budgets, meaning you can do more exciting things.
What are some big projects you are excited for?
We’ve got the biggest prostate cancer trial for twenty years coming up this spring – it’s going to be a £42 million investment from Prostate Cancer UK and the government. We’ll be looking at diagnosing the pathways which already exist or have recently been developed, and try to find out which of those are going to be the ideal one to reach a screening programme.
The issue is the PSA test has far too many false positives and false negatives, which the government has deemed is doing the general public overall harm. So it’s about combining techniques, such as a PSA test with an MRI scan, to make it more accurate and bring that ration of harm down. It will prove to NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, who make the decision for the NHS, that our determined pathway is the way to screen for prostate cancer.
Learn more about the TRANSFORM study here
How important are the personal stories and personal relationships for impacting the work Prostate Cancer UK do?
Having a close personal connection to cause is such a huge part of our partnerships. Especially someone as incredible as Lloyd, who did so much for the charity, and was so dedicated in his mission to raise awareness for men, and make sure that other men and their families don’t have to go through this in the future.
It touches you and it galvanises you to be dedicated to the cause. It’s difficult to express through statistics – you hear 12,000 men die every year – but as soon as you know that personal story, and what it’s put people through, who knew them and how many people loved them, it puts a human face on such an awful thing. It brings it home.
