Johnson & Johnson /
Shining a light on the need for prostate cancer screening
Every 45 minutes, a man in the UK dies from prostate cancer. Half are diagnosed too late. Despite being the most common cancer in men, it remains the only major cancer without a national screening programme.
We know 1 in 4 Black men will get prostate cancer – twice the rate for white men – and have higher rates of stage 3 and stage 4 prostate cancer than any other ethnic group.
With the advent of new technologies making screening more accurate, Johnson & Johnson joined forces with patient groups to demonstrate the need for change, shining a light on the men being missed and the urgent need for reform.
The work
Working with Johnson & Johnson, we built a unifying campaign to spotlight the urgent need for prostate cancer screening. Too many men were being missed – so we set out to make them seen. ‘Can you C Me?’ was built around a simple but powerful visual cue: a hand forming the letter C, symbolising those left unseen by a broken system. We combined real patient stories with hard data, mapped regional inequalities, and highlighted how the UK is lagging behind global standards. Launched in Parliament and backed by MPs, the campaign used compelling visuals, polling and advocacy tools to drive momentum with decision-makers, clinicians and the media.
Our achievements
The campaign, driven alongside six leading patient advocacy groups, drove unified action on screening. It secured political cut-through and helped shape Party commitments – with MPs pledging public support; the Liberal Democrat 2024 election manifesto backing a targeted screening programme and Labour committing to double CT and MRI capacity (essential for screenings); 42 Parliamentary Questions tabled in 2024 (up from 8 in 2023); and media coverage including ITV, Sky and BBC News.
Its momentum helped move prostate cancer up the political agenda and pushed the National Screening Committee to review new evidence, with prostate screening now expected to feature in the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s Men’s Health Strategy.