02 July 2026

Men's Health Week: How the North West Queensland PCSG reached more men

As Secretary and Treasurer of the North West QLD Prostate Cancer Support Group, Yvonne McCoy knows that awareness begins with honest, everyday conversations.

During Men’s Health Week, the group spent four days in the foyer of Mount Isa Hospital, inviting local men and their families to pull up a chair, ask questions and have a yarn about prostate cancer.

The activity was made possible through a PCFA Community Grant, which helped the group take its message into the heart of the community.

“We decided that this year we had to be in people’s faces,” Ms McCoy says.

After a quieter period, the small but determined group wanted to become more visible, raise awareness and make it easier for men across the region to access information and support.

The hospital foyer gave them the perfect opportunity.

There were no formal speeches and no pressure. Instead, group members spoke with people as they passed through the hospital, shared lived experience and helped make a topic many men can find uncomfortable feel easier to discuss.

“Our whole theme for this Men’s Health Week was awareness and support,” Ms McCoy says.

PCFA Community Grant funding helped the group purchase materials for the activity, including branded hats, water containers, laptop bags and backpacks.

Ms McCoy says the grant gave the group the practical support it needed to make the outreach happen.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do this activity without PCFA’s support,” she says.

The four-day activation also helped introduce the group to new people in the community, including a local nurse who connected with the team during the event.

For Ms McCoy, the value of simply being visible became clear almost immediately.

After leaving the hospital on the final afternoon, still wearing her PCFA shirt, she stopped at a local service station. The man serving her noticed the shirt and asked a question that opened the door to an important conversation.

“He said, ‘What’s the difference between prostate cancer and bowel cancer?’” Ms McCoy recalls.

“I had a bit of a chat with him and explained to him a bit about this and that. He said, ‘No, I didn’t know.’ I said, ‘It’s time you did something about it, and I’m coming back to check up on you.’”

The North West QLD Prostate Cancer Support Group has been incorporated since around 2012. Despite an ageing membership and the challenges of maintaining a small regional group, members continue to show up for men and their families impacted by prostate cancer.

Ms McCoy’s commitment is shaped by lived experience. Her husband lived with advanced prostate cancer for 14 years, and she remains involved to help others access information, confidence and connection.

“We just keep trying,” Ms McCoy says.