Nina Barough CBE
Nina is the Founder and Chief Executive of breast cancer charity Walk the Walk. It is a grant making charity that to date has raised over £139 million.
After three men, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer took part in The Moonwalk London 2017, Nina and her team at Walk the Walk realised that there was a huge stigma surrounding breast cancer in men. There was very little information about the disease and people did not know that it affected men as well as women. As a result, men were being diagnosed too late – lives were being lost!
Determined to change this The Men Get Breast Cancer Too! campaign was launched in October 2017, with the involvement and passion of 6 brave men who had been diagnosed with the disease. A lunch was arranged, and this was the first time that each of them had met another man with breast cancer, it was also the first time that this number of men had ever been together in the UK.
A blue checked bra image was created for the iconic Walk the Walk t-shirts and are worn by men taking part in The Moon Walks. The charities Check your Chest poster and more recently, the Anyone Can Get Breast Cancer poster have raised awareness by being displayed all over the country.
Walk the Walk also brought together11 cancer charities to ensure that by uniting they were able to get maximum exposure for the men. The campaign went from strength to strength encouraging many more men to join, all sharing their individual stories, spreading the word throughout the world that men can get breast cancer. Securing coverage and appearances in National and Local Press, Radio, Television, reaching millions of people.
Nina and the charity worked with Dr Kerry Quincy, Doug Harper and Dave Talbot in helping to establish the Men's Virtual Meet Up (VMU). It really was the next step in providing support for the men, a monthly Zoom meeting where the men can chat openly and support each other.