Sir Geoff Hurst will return to the scene of his greatest triumph when he takes part in Prostate Cancer UK’s Football March for Men from London Stadium to Wembley.
The March for Men, which takes place on Sunday 22 July, will see thousands of football fans walk to the Home of Football from four starting points across the capital.
London Stadium will be the backdrop to the east London leg of the march, the route also visiting National League Leyton Orient before popping in on North London neighbours Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal before Wembley.
When you first hear the stat about how prostate cancer kills one man every 45 minutes, you realise how big a disease it is and how important it is to continue to raise awareness of it
Sir Geoff Hurst
For Sir Geoff, that means walking from West Ham United’s home ground to the stadium where he scored in the Club’s 1964 FA Cup final win, lifted the 1965 European Cup Winners’ Cup and netted a hat-trick in England’s 1966 FIFA World Cup triumph over West Germany.
The Hammers are among 15 clubs in London and the South East involved on the day and the 76-year-old, who has seen former international teammates Nobby Stiles and Mike Summerbee affected by prostate cancer, called on as many West Ham supporters as possible to take part
“When you first hear the stat about how prostate cancer kills one man every 45 minutes, you realise how big a disease it is and how important it is to continue to raise awareness of it, and raise funds for it, to be able to have research into it,” he said. “When you narrow it down to that kind of stat it is quite shocking, really shocking.
“The walk is a great innovative way of getting people to support the charity. It will be great to see all those walkers turning up at Wembley. It will almost be like a cup final or even a World Cup final with all the different colours with different teams, and uniting everybody against this terrible disease.
“I’m looking forward to seeing it if I get an opportunity to stand out by the Bobby Moore Statue and look down Wembley Way and hopefully see them all walking up.”
Many people are unaware that prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. For the first time, the number of men dying from prostate cancer every year has overtaken the number of women dying from breast cancer, making prostate cancer the third-biggest cancer killer in the UK.
One man dies from prostate cancer every 45 minutes, but fans are fighting back to make prostate cancer a disease that the next generation of men do not fear.
Click here to sign up for the March for Men or find out more information.