Forty years after an Italian designer bounced into a patent office to register himself as the inventor of the world’s first Space Hopper, the inflatable orange toy has been redesigned for a new campaign to raise millions of pounds for British cancer charities. Bounce Your Balls For Cancer aims to make the new-look Space Hopper synonymous with testicular cancer in the way that the pink ribbon has become synonymous with breast cancer. It is backed by five national charities who are inviting supporters to raise awareness of testicular cancer by ‘doing daft things on Space Hoppers’ such as skydiving, scuba diving and taking part in Space Hopper races.  The founder of the campaign is a Sussex entrepreneur, Glen Poole, who has taken on the role of ‘Head Bouncer’ at Bounce Your Balls For Cancer. He said: “I was inspired by the way that women come together to fundraise for breast cancer charities and wanted to create a campaign to increase awareness of testicular cancer. “Getting people to do daft things on Space Hoppers is a great way to remind men to bounce their own balls for cancer on a regular basis. “And of course if women have the balls to bounce with us, then they’re more than welcome to grab the hopper by the horns and join in the fun. “We tried out this idea in Brighton last year and it was such a big success that we have decided to take the campaign national. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Space Hopper. “We hope that people will start organising their own Bounce Your Balls events all over the country and bring this 20^th century design icon bouncing back to life.  “It’s really easy to get involved, all you need is a Space Hopper, a sense of fun and a willingness to fall flat on your face, arse or elbow.  Bounce Your Balls For Cancer is launching its 2008 campaign with a Non Stop Space Hop at the Food & Drink Expo in the Birmingham NEC (April 6 – 9) where exhibitors, visitors and volunteers will be helping to keep one of the new-look Space Hoppers bouncing non stop throughout the four day show. The five national charities backing the Bounce Your Balls campaign are Orchid Cancer Appeal, Everyman, Teenage Cancer Trust, Bob Champion Trust and Men’s Health Forum. The Bounce Your Balls campaign aims to help these charities raise £1 million in the next three years and establish itself as a popular fundraising tool for many years to come.   In addition, the Bounce Your Balls campaign is designed to raise awareness of testicular cancer, which is the biggest cancer killer of teenage boys and men under 45 and is 99% curable if caught early. Incidences of the cancer have doubled since the early Seventies when the Space Hopper first arrived in the UK, though there is no scientific evidence that these two facts are linked! There are around 2,000 new cases of testicular cancer in the UK every year with around 95% of ca

Forty years after an Italian designer bounced into a patent office to register himself as the inventor of the world’s first Space Hopper, the inflatable orange toy has been redesigned for a new campaign to raise millions of pounds for British cancer charities.

 Bounce Your Balls For Cancer aims to make the new-look Space Hopper synonymous with testicular cancer in the way that the pink ribbon has become synonymous with breast cancer. It is backed by five national charities who are inviting supporters to raise awareness of testicular cancer by ‘doing daft things on Space Hoppers’ such as skydiving, scuba diving and taking part in Space Hopper races.  The founder of the campaign is a Sussex entrepreneur, Glen Poole, who has taken on the role of ‘Head Bouncer’ at Bounce Your Balls For Cancer. He said: “I was inspired by the way that women come together to fundraise for breast cancer charities and wanted to create a campaign to increase awareness of testicular cancer. “Getting people to do daft things on Space Hoppers is a great way to remind men to bounce their own balls for cancer on a regular basis. “And of course if women have the balls to bounce with us, then they’re more than welcome to grab the hopper by the horns and join in the fun. “We tried out this idea in Brighton last year and it was such a big success that we have decided to take the campaign national. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Space Hopper. “We hope that people will start organising their own Bounce Your Balls events all over the country and bring this 20^th century design icon bouncing back to life.  “It’s really easy to get involved, all you need is a Space Hopper, a sense of fun and a willingness to fall flat on your face, arse or elbow.  Bounce Your Balls For Cancer is launching its 2008 campaign with a Non Stop Space Hop at the Food & Drink Expo in the Birmingham NEC (April 6 – 9) where exhibitors, visitors and volunteers will be helping to keep one of the new-look Space Hoppers bouncing non stop throughout the four day show. The five national charities backing the Bounce Your Balls campaign are Orchid Cancer Appeal, Everyman, Teenage Cancer Trust, Bob Champion Trust and Men’s Health Forum. The Bounce Your Balls campaign aims to help these charities raise £1 million in the next three years and establish itself as a popular fundraising tool for many years to come.   In addition, the Bounce Your Balls campaign is designed to raise awareness of testicular cancer, which is the biggest cancer killer of teenage boys and men under 45 and is 99% curable if caught early. Incidences of the cancer have doubled since the early Seventies when the Space Hopper first arrived in the UK, though there is no scientific evidence that these two facts are linked! There are around 2,000 new cases of testicular cancer in the UK every year with around 95% of cases resulting in death, an average of one death every four days.  For further information on the Bounce Your Balls campaign and to make a donation visit www.bounceyourballs.com.ses resulting in death, an average of one death every four days.  For further information on the Bounce Your Balls campaign and to make a donation visit www.bounceyourballs.com.

Popularity: 59% [?]

Tags: Bounce Your Balls For Cancer, cancer, Space Hopper, testicular cancer

Popularity: 60% [?]

Tags: Everyman Videos

Lots of information on the importance of taking this issue seriously but put across in unique way!

Popularity: 59% [?]

Tags: Everyman Video, Video Find

The Bounce Your Balls campaign goes national in April 2008 when we’ll be inviting people to do daft things on Space Hoppers to raise awareness of testicular cancer.You’d be amazed at just how far some people will go on a Space Hoppers. Last year we had Space Hopper races, a Space Hopper triathlon, we built a pyramid out of 300 Space Hoppers and we even had a hopping madman skydiving on a Space Hopper.Our first event in 2008 will be our national launch at the Birmingham NEC during the Food &  Drink Expo 2008 (6-9 April) where exbitiors, visitors and celebrity chefs will join forces to keep a Space Hopper bouncing non-stop for four days.Keep an eye on the site for news of more events and if there’s nothing happening in your area then why not become a Bounce Your Balls organiser and put on an event for us. You can contact us by emailing bounce@bounceyourballs.com or by calling Glen Poole on 07981 334222. 

Popularity: 62% [?]

Tags: , testicular cancer

Rugby stars are known for playing with their odd-shaped balls in public, but some of the Gloucester team really will be playing with their balls in public - though hopefully they won’t be odd-shaped!

Nick Wood and Mark Foster  are just two players taking part in Channel 4’s Embarrassing Illnesses documentary which aims to raise awareness about testicular cancer and get men to carry out more regular checks on themselves.The players will be taking part in a mass testicular check in front of the cameras this Friday (7 March)

For the full story see: www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk

Popularity: 81% [?]

Tags: gloucester, rugby, testicular cancer

Bounce Your Balls was launched in 2006 and hit a media audience of more than 20 million people in the first six months.

The following article on the BBC website is just one of many highlighting the world’s first ever Space Hopper sky dive.

Popularity: 60% [?]

Tags: BBC Coverage

Raising awareness of testicular cancer can save lives. And what better way to raise awareness of testicular than by doing something really daft on a Space Hopper. Take Andy Carr of Burgess Hill, West Sussex. He made national headlines for Bounce Your Balls when he became the first man to skydive on a Space Hopper. And while we can accept no liability if you or anyone else does something really daft on a Space Hopper, we’d really love to keep extreme Space Hopping back in the headlines. You may want to snowboard on a Space Hopper, climb Everest on a Space Hopper or bounce naked across the sun-drenched plains of the Serengeti. Whatever your idea, if you want to raise awareness of testicular cancer by doing something daft on a Space Hopper then we want to hear from you.

You can contact Bounce Your Balls by emailing bounce@bounceyourballs.com or by calling Glen Poole on 07981 334222.

Popularity: 64% [?]

The Men’s Health Forum needs your support

To make a secure credit card donation online to us through the Charities Aid Foundation, click here.

To make a donation in a more time-consuming but more tax-efficient way using Gift Aid, click here.To support or fundraise for us in another way, contact office@menshealthforum.org.uk

Please click here to go straight to the  Mens  health Forum

Popularity: 87% [?]

Tags: , Bounce Your Balls, Men's Health Forum

Exhibitors at Food & Drink Expo will be hopping mad    More than 100 people from the world of food and drink are expected to participate in a bizarre world record attempt at the Food & Drink trade show (NEC 6-9 April).  Exhibitors, visitors and celebrity chefs will join forces to keep a Space Hopper bouncing non-stop throughout the four day event.   The aim is to set a world record for the longest non-stop Space Hopper bounce and mark the launch a new national campaign that invites people to raise awareness of testicular cancer by doing daft things on Space Hoppers.  Called “Bounce Your Balls For Cancer”, its aim is to encourage men to bounce their own balls for cancer (ie check their testicles) and to raise £1 million pounds for charity over the next three years.   Food & Drink exhibitors who have already pledged to keep the ball bouncing include Mini Meaty Munchies (salami snacks), innocent smoothies, Firefly Tonics, Montezuma’s Chocolates, Aspall Cyder and Taylerson’s Malmesbury Syrups.  Marcus Mitchell, Managing Director of Mini Meaty Munchies, a new salami snack that has sponsored the launch of Bounce Your Balls For Cancer, said:  “This is a fantastic way for the industry to come together and make a positive contribution to a great new campaign.  “I would love to see at least one volunteer from every stand at the event grab the Space Hopper by the horns and bounce their balls for cancer.   “You don’t have to be hopping mad to take part, but it helps. It’s a quick, fun and easy way to make a big difference to the nation’s health.”

Popularity: 76% [?]

Tags: , Big Ball Bounce, Bounce Your Balls

You can make an online donation to Orchid here:

http://www.orchid-cancer.org.uk/donations.cfm

Popularity: 41% [?]