Portsmouth FC First Football Club to Provide Male Incontinence Bins 

• Content
• News
• Portsmouth FC First Football Club to Provide Male Incontinence Bins 

15 May 2024 | Updated 16 May 2024

Portsmouth FC’s Fratton Park is the first UK football ground to support Prostate Cancer UK’s Dispose with Dignity initiative by providing male incontinence bins.

A Portsmouth FC fan approached the EFL League One club to introduce them to the Dispose with Dignity campaign, which calls for increased awareness of male incontinence and the need for dedicated incontinence bins in toilets so that men can dispose of incontinence pants and pads, stoma bags, wipes and other personal care products. 

Prostate Cancer UK and phs Group have designed a specialised bin for this purpose, and are also urging the government to make the bins mandatory in male toilets.

Portsmouth FC has placed ten bins across the club’s premises including fan washrooms and lounges, so that its supporters, staff and visiting away fans can dispose of their incontinence products with dignity behind the cubicle door.

 Picture: a photograph of a toilet cubicle showing one of the incontinence bins in situ. Image Credit: phs Group

One in Eight men Will Get Prostate Cancer

One in eight men will get prostate cancer, rising to one in four for Black men. Of the over 475,000 men living with or after prostate cancer in the UK, many will experience urinary incontinence as a side effect of treatment for the disease. In Portsmouth, more than 31,000 men are aged 50 or over, so are at higher risk of getting prostate cancer.

Many men experience urinary incontinence as a side effect of prostate cancer treatment, and the Dispose with Dignity campaign wants to remove the stigma from this rarely discussed subject.

"Despite the fact that 1 in 3 men over 65 in the UK experience urinary incontinence, there’s a dire lack of sanitary bins in gents’ toilets and a paralysing taboo stopping people from speaking up about it."

–Nick Ridgman

Head of Health Information & Clinical Support – Prostate Cancer UK

 

Nick Ridgman, Head of Health Information & Clinical Support at Prostate Cancer UK, commented: "A man living with incontinence should be able to go to the football only worrying about whether his team will win and the ref will make good decisions - not about whether he'll be able to get rid of his used pads.

“Despite the fact that 1 in 3 men over 65 in the UK experience urinary incontinence, there’s a dire lack of sanitary bins in gents’ toilets and a paralysing taboo stopping people from speaking up about it. Maintaining an active social life can be beneficial to a man going through or recovering from prostate cancer treatment, but almost all the men we've spoken to who experience incontinence feel anxiety about leaving the house.

"That's why we are so pleased that Portsmouth FC have signed up to the Dispose with Dignity initiative, and we hope this will be the first of many football clubs to care for its supporters in this way. We look forward to working with the team at Pompey and phs Group to continue building a future where men’s lives are not limited by incontinence.” 

 Picture: a photograph of a football on a field. Image Credit: Unsplash

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 15 May 2024

Share

Related Articles