Interactive map reveals where men are 81% more likely to die young – are you at risk?

MEN living in the most deprived areas of the UK are 81 per cent more likely to die young, a damning new report reveals.

Leading charity Movember lays bare the state of men’s health, warning almost two in five male deaths are premature – that’s 133,000 men a year lost too soon.

Use the interactive map below to find out how your constituency fares.

Matthew Johnson, an ambassador for Movember (pictured growing his moustache) was driven to try and take his own life due to depressionRankin Studios

GettyDominic Littlewood (pictured 2014) was diagnosed with prostate cancer after lying to his GP to get a test[/caption]

That’s why Movember is calling on the new Government to invest in and prioritise reform to improve healthcare services for men.

A heat map highlights the degree to which a man’s postcode can determine his risk of ending up in an early grave.

Men living in the top 10 per cent least deprived parts of England live on average 10 years longer than those in the most deprived 10 per cent of areas.

Men in Ladywood, Birmingham, on average, are four times more likely to die prematurely than those living in North East Hampshire.

Central Leeds, Blackpool South, and Blackley and Broughton in Manchester also top the list for the highest rates of early male deaths, while Twickenham, Beckenham and South West Devon have the lowest. 

But it’s Scotland, particularly Glasgow, that has the worst premature mortality rate in males than the whole of the UK.

Men living in the top 10 per cent least deprived parts of Scotland live on average 14 years longer than those in the most deprived 10 per cent of areas.

Michelle Terry, Movember CEO, said the findings must serve as a “wakeup call”.

“For too long, men’s health has been relegated to the sidelines of broader health conversations,” she said. 

“Men’s health doesn’t exist in a vacuum. 

“If we want these tragic numbers to decrease, and better support the men in our lives, real change is needed urgently.”

Celebrities are backing the charity’s vital call to action, sharing their own experiences in a bid to help others.

TV presenter Matt Johnson reveals how he was driven to try and take his own life, while consumer champion and star of Fake Britain and Cowboy Builders, Dominic Littlewood admits he lied to get his prostate checked – leading to an early cancer diagnosis – after his dad’s untimely death from the disease.

Prevention of suicide, prostate and testicular cancer is at the top of The Movember Foundation’s agenda. 

Movember is typically known as an annual event held in November where men grow moustaches to raise awareness and funds for men’s health issues.

But it is in fact an year-round initiative that, with the support of fundraisers, supports a range of projects aimed at improving men’s health and raising awarness of them.

While issues around men’s health are complex, the Real Face of Men’s Health Report published today pinpoints the barriers that prevent too many men from seeking help.

Men are more likely to engage in risky behaviours and unhealthy lifestyles, the charity warned.

They are more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, have high cholesterol and high blood pressure, use drugs and be classed as overweight or obese.

Men are also more likely to die from substance abuse, self-harm, violence and injury.

Meanwhile, they are less likely to seek help with nearly two thirds (64 per cent) waiting more than a week with symptoms before seeing a doctor – 31 per cent wait more than a month.

It means preventable conditions like some cancers, heart disease and type 2 diabetes – all of which affect men disproportionately – going undiagnosed and untreated for longer – often until it is too late.

What’s more, when men do seek help, the report concludes the health system does not always respond to mens’ needs.

When men do reach out for help, available data suggest they are being failed. 

A lack of communication and vulnerability among men, and a pressure to act tough, are also contributors to apparent worsening mental health. 

Call for Government action

The charity is calling for an appointed men’s health ambassador in UK government amid a fall in male life expectancy since 2020.

The UK one of only two countries in the G7 where male life expectancy has decreased since 2012.

On average in the UK, women live almost four years longer than men.

Plans to appoint a Men’s Health Ambassador were announced by the Government in November 2023 and the conclusions of the men’s health inquiry in May 2024 recommended that the next government publishes a men’s health strategy. 

“Our asks build on this,” Movember says, extensively detailing principles Government could adopt.

Alastair Campbell, former spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and mental health campaigner, said: “For too long, this country has been going backwards on policies that directly support men’s health. 

“The new Labour Government has a bright opportunity to be bold and change the face of men’s health – and this starts with a men’s health strategy.”

The top five causes of premature death in men across England, Scotland and Wales in 2021 were heart disease, Covid-19, lung cancer, accidents and accidental poisoning and liver diseases.

Meanwhile, in England, suicide is three times higher in men than women, and it is the leading cause of death among men aged 20 to 34 years old.

The statistics are moving in the wrong direction with a six per cent rise in suicides (predominantly among middle-aged men) in 2023.

TV presenter and mental health campaigner Matt Johnson, who’s appeared on This Morning and is an ambassador for the People’s Postcode Lottery, attempted to take his own life at the end of 2009 after a two-year battle with deep depression.

The 41-year-old told The Sun: “What nearly took my own life was my inability to communicate and talk about my feelings because of the negative stigma attached to having feelings as a man.

“I couldn’t really articulate because I didn’t understand my own brain. 

“I was a really scared man for a couple of years and I didn’t know a way out.

“I felt like the only way out for me – in my little mind at that time – was to take my own life.

“I tried and it wasn’t successful, and my life has been changed ever since then.”

The idea of mens’ strength, toughness and masculinity is highlighted in the report as a ‘double jeopardy’ – increasing the likelihood men will experience distress, while enforcing negative attitudes towards seeking help.

Matt Johnson said he felt suicide was the “only way out”. He is now a mental health charity ambassadorRex

Dominic Littlewood says his dad was “fobbed off” by the NHS, which he says he has no confidence inRex

Studies have shown that men who conform to traditional masculine norms are less likely to seek help.

However, a study showed that 82 per cent of men aged 40-54 who died by suicide in 2017 were in contact with primary care services prior to their death, and half had been in contact with mental health services. 

Another study revealed that 43 per cent of men aged 40-54 who died by suicide in 2017 saw their GP in the three months prior to their death.

Matt, who runs the Instagram page thecheckin.co, supports the idea of a dedicated men’s mental health minister in government but says there’s a need for more comprehensive measures. 

“We’re looking at a real pandemic here, a global issue,” he says.

“If this was an illness, or a vaccine was needed for a virus sweeping the nation, it would be a cause for alarm.”

Dismissed by GPs

Movember says while men are known to delay seeing a GP, less is understood about what happens behind the GP’s door when they do turn for help.

The charity’s poll of 1,500 men suggests gender stereotypes, such as ‘toughing it out’, and a lack of personal connection or empathy with GPs who may ‘downplay’ health concerns, are among the barriers men face to adequate health information and care.

Dominic Littlewood, of Fake Britain and Cowboy Builders fame, has spoken out about his dissatisfaction with the NHS after his dad died of colon cancer aged 66, in 1999.

The 59-year-old told The Sun: “For three years he went to the doctor and said something was wrong.

“They told him to cut out grapefruit and ice cream – they fobbed him off.

“I have no confidence in the NHS at all at the moment – they’re ticking boxes and getting us out the door.”

It’s an experience that has made Dom more proactive with regards to his own health.

Last March, Dom underwent a triple heart bypass in Turkey after getting a precautionary full health MOT there.

He planned to return to the NHS for his op, but doctors in Turkey said they feared he wouldn’t survive the four-hour flight home.

Dom says: “I didn’t feel like I’d had any problems but the surgeon said you potentially could have had three heart attacks. 

“Blokes need to be aware that sometimes you might have indigestion or heartburn but it could be the early stages of heart attacks. 

“Quite often you can get these little build-up ones until the big one takes you away and it’s curtains.

“Blokes, we have to be on it, we have to be checking every single thing.”

It comes after Dom lied to his GP to get a PSA test at the age of 47 despite having no symptoms of prostate cancer – a decision that would prove life-changing.

“I told the doctor I was tired all the time,” Dom, who was already having a blood test for his type 1 diabetes, said.

“Two weeks later I got a call from the nurse who said my PSA levels were high.”

After further tests, Dom was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had surgery.

Five years later, also at the age of 47, his brother received the same diagnosis – both are now cancer free.

Dom said: “Any bloke who’s over 45 should start looking out for it [prostate cancer].

“Be proactive. A lot of blokes don’t do this but I tell wives, girlfriends and mothers to book an appointment, get him out there, get his blood tested.”

Like Dom, Mike Maloney, a retired audit partner from Bromley, Kent, has survived prostate cancer but watched his dad die of the disease due to a late diagnosis.

The 59-year-old, who is a leading fundraiser for Movember, tells Sun Health: “I knew prostate cancer was in my bloodline because both my grandfathers had died from it.

“About 14 years ago, my father was diagnosed with it and he wasn’t so lucky.

“He’d gone to his doctor and asked for a PSA test but was denied it because he had no symptoms, which turned out to be the single worst decision in dad’s life.

SuppliedMike Maloney, 59, survived prostate cancer, but watched his dad die of the disease[/caption]

SuppliedMike pictured with family including wife Jane, 58 (right), kids Jack, 28, and Anna, 26, and his late father, Noel (centre)[/caption]

“He asked again four years later and a new doctor said fine, but he was diagnosed and the cancer was outside the prostate, which set him on a long path of of pain and anguish.”

Mike’s dad Noel died in January of this year at the age of 86 having lived with prostate cancer for 13 years.

Having his PSA regularly checked, Mike’s level increased in March 2014 and a raft of tests that followed led the the “bombshell” cancer diagnosis.

He and his wife, Jane, 58, kept it from everyone because their two children – Jack, 28, and Anna, 26 – were both about to sit important school exams.

Mike said: “It can just have a really profound impact on family and you’re sitting there as a man, as an individual, in this in the eye of the storm, but then you’ve got to think about everybody else.”

Improving men’s health can save families from anguish, bereavement and financial uncertainty, as well as wider society billions of pounds.

Research commissioned for the report suggests that the UK could have saved up to £9.4 billion in 2023 alone if all preventable disease cases caused by just five conditions could have been avoided in men.

The night before Mike’s operation on his prostate, in June 2014, he told his kids about his diagnosis and his daughter worried he would die.

He says: “I always say to my kids if I use the word ‘promise’ I mean it.

“The day before the operation, I said ‘I promise I’m going to be fine’, but I didn’t know that for sure.

“When my daughter asked Jack how he knew I’d be fine, he said ‘Because he promised’.

“You hear the C word every day. But when the grenade goes off in your front room, it’s horrible.

“Family can be hugely supportive, but they can only support so much.

“Ultimately they cant help at 2am when you’re losing your mind.

“Most men recover from prostate cancer, but until you do, you can’t congratulate yourself. 

“You’re just praying you’re not at the wrong end of the statistics.”