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
Europes 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."
-Ends-
For further information about everyman please contact:-
Kate Husher, Institute of Cancer Research, Tel: 0171 970 6030 email:
For Bigfanof.com contact::-
Anthony Kayne, Cohn & Wolf,
Tel: 020 7331 5300 email:
For QXL.com contact:-
CJ Wilson, Tel: 020 8962 7321, email: