Knees freed for charity

An array of knees were on display last Friday as members of the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission and other companies wore shorts to raise awareness and funds for Prostate Cancer Support Group Gibraltar.

The #FreeTheKnee campaign is in its third year and the Chairman of the Prostate Cancer Support John Diaz was in Casemates to see over 65 supporters walk into the square carrying banners and posters.

Nicky Gomez the event organiser said that it initially came about because men in Gibraltar have to wear suits, socks and shoes during the summer months and they asked their CEO if they could wear shorts. She agreed on the condition they only did it for one day and they raised funds for charity when they did. With this #FreeTheKnee was born.

Last year the event raised £5,000 for the charity. Mr Gomez explained that the decision to pick the Prostate Cancer Support Group was because men are wearing the suits and affected by the heat of wearing these in summer. Therefore, they decided to support a charity that supports an illness that affects only men.

As part of the event there was various ways to show support, one such way was to take a #Kneemoji selfie. Where a person drew or painted an emoji on their knee, made it their Facebook profile picture and donates money to the cause. I was also encouraged that people nominated others to #FreeTheKnee or partake in the #Kneemoji challenge.

“This is great because they are doing a lot of awareness, which is basically one of our top priorities, awareness and education. Nicky [Gomez] is a great organiser and motivator so it is fantastic to have him on our side,” said Mr Diaz.

“One of our things as well is to work with the GHA to provide equipment needed for the benefit of the patients and now we have found funding for a scanner and biopsy gun and we have just bought new equipment for work that is been done in Xanit,” he added.

The new equipment cost over £20k and once in Gibraltar and a person is trained how to use it patients will no longer need to travel to Spain for treatment.