Australians encouraged to walk during Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

When Monica Berryman found out her father had prostate cancer, she never would have guessed he wasn’t the only one in the family. Now she’s urging everyone to speak up.

Monica Berryman is raising money for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month by participating in The Long Run. Picture: supplied

Monica Berryman didn’t know much about prostate cancer before her dad was diagnosed with the disease.

After informing family of his diagnosis, she was surprised to learn five other men in her family had also suffered from the disease.

“They hadn’t told anyone because they were ashamed or embarrassed to talk about it,” Ms Berryman said.

Since then, Ms Berryman has made it her mission to not only raise money, but to raise awareness of Australia’s most commonly diagnosed cancer in men.

When Monica Berryman found out her father had prostate cancer, she soon learned other members in her family had the disease too (Pictured here with father Mel, brother Daniel, and mother Denise ). Picture: supplied

Ms Berryman participated in The Long Run last year, raising $25,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia by walking a collective total of 3500km with 29 people from her office.

This year Ms Berryman, who works for Austral Service Darwin, is hoping to outdo that.

“This year we’ve set a target of $30,000 and hope to cover more than 8,500km together – the distance from our Henderson office to each of our other offices around the country in Darwin, Cairns and Brisbane.”

The Long Run is an initiative anyone can sign up to.

Monica Berryman and Austal Darwin operations manager Chris Munday. Together they are raising money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Picture: supplied

The Prostate Cancer Foundation encourages participants to walk or run 72km over the month of September to raise money during Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.

According to the foundation, about 10 men die every day from prostate cancer.

“I really hope that in our near future, society won’t have a stigma against men with prostate cancer and make them feel like they can’t speak out,” Ms Berryman said.

“I encourage the community to (...) have conversations about the disease and encourage the men in your lives to talk to their GP about getting tested, and take action.”

Runners and walkers can register at www.thelongrun.org.au