Bishops Castle is the first town across Shropshire-based cancer Charity Lingen Davies's geographical patch to become a Bins for Boys town.
So far, 11 venues including Enterprise House, Castle Hotel, Herbies Café, The Happy Bap, SpArc Leisure Centre and the Town Hall have signed up to Lingen Davies's call for public venues to add sanitary bins to male toilets and raise awareness that a lack of them is letting men down.
Incontinence can be a side effect of cancer and cancer treatment for many men who can be left with serious bladder and bowel problems following treatment for bowel or prostate cancer.
It can also affect men who have suffered a range of other illnesses including Crohn’s disease and irritable bowel syndrome.
Men who need a place to hygienically dispose of their pads, pouches, stomas, catheters, colostomy, or ileostomy bags following cancer or illness, are lacking places to do so when they are out and about.
Lingen Davies, which exists to make a positive impact on lives affected by cancer, took the evidence from a nationwide campaign by various cancer charities, which also lobbied the government about the issue, and wanted to create a real and lasting change locally.
Along with volunteer support it helps raise awareness about the signs and symptoms of cancer, and the long-term impact it can have and with the Bins for Boys project, for men in particular.
Danny Lloyd-Jones, 36 from Oswestry, is involved in promoting the project. Danny was diagnosed with bowel cancer just before his 32nd birthday and was told on the same day he would need major surgery and to have a stoma.
“I had no idea what a stoma was until I was told I needed to have one, which was obviously life changing. I have been in well-known shops before with no sanitary bins in the toilet and I had to change my stoma and carry the bag around, which obviously I didn’t want to have to do," said Danny. "I think Bins for Boys is a brilliant project and I hope many more public venues get behind and help make this much-needed change.”
To sign to become a Bins for Boys venue or to find out more about the project in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Mid Wales, please visit www.lingendavies.co.uk/ binsforboys
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