The Prostate Cancer UK Memorial
“We Make.You Think delivered on our brief for a national memorial in every way, the design has created a huge awareness for Prostate Cancer UK, given a meaningful opportunity for people to celebrate their loved ones lost to this awful disease, and helped the charity raise thousands of pounds for life changing research.”
Nicola Tallett, Director of Fundraising and Supporter Engagement, Prostate Cancer UK, 2022
(This testimonial was given to We Make.You Think, the design studio Martin co-founded, which delivered the Prostate Cancer UK Memorial project).
London Bridge Station
BBC Special Report 2019
BBC
“The final form had to profoundly respect those whose names it is honoured to carry, it had to be tender enough for people to engage with it but equally bold enough to help raise awareness for those so far untouched by prostate cancer.”
Here I am in interview with the BBC’s Ian Palmer, London Bridge station, November 2021.
London Bridge Station
The Prostate Cancer UK Memorial
“It is a beautiful memorial, honouring the wonderful men we loved and lost to prostate cancer.”
Julie
A triangle is the strongest form in nature. It is everywhere around us, in architecture, geology, chemistry, and physics. The pyramid was a perfect solution: if the surfaces were reflective, I felt there would be a sense of optimism, wonder and hope, engendered by them facing upwards, reflecting the sky or the space above the viewer’s head.
Prostate Cancer UK wanted a touring remembrance structure that would raise awareness of the disease while giving people the chance to see their loved one’s name in person. It was one of the most quietly profound briefs I have ever been given.
My proposal was a reflective steel pyramid, incorporating space for the charity’s identity and the names of those lost. The belief behind it is simple: that with the right investment and awareness, the impact of prostate cancer can be reduced.
Unveiled at London Bridge Station in November 2021, the Memorial has since toured major stations across the UK, including Nottingham, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Cardiff, Southampton, Lincoln and King’s Cross, and is currently at Bristol Temple Meads. Around 630 names are engraved so far, with the number growing at every stop.
Nicola Tallett, Acting Chief Executive at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “Our beautiful memorial is a thoughtful place to display tributes to all those men lost to prostate cancer, and we see this as a fitting legacy to all our loved ones.”
Birmingham New Street Station
In their own words
Visitors to the Memorial have shared their experiences of finding a name on the pyramid, often for the first time.
“Today we visited the Prostate Cancer UK’s Memorial at London Bridge Station, a wonderful and innovative creation.”
Michelle
“We were very lucky to be able to visit the memorial on Saturday and what a lovely tribute it is to our amazing men.”
Gemma
“The monument is a great tribute to remember all the lovely men who have been lost to this horrid illness. Much gratitude to you for making it, it really does mean so much to us, and I cannot thank you enough.”
Gillian
“I would liken it to a war memorial. It is very moving when you’re faced with it and all the names on it, just a fraction of the men who have died from it.”
Susan
“I visited the memorial today with very mixed emotions. I wanted to see it with my husband’s name on it in real life, but I also went and stood for a while at the beautiful memorial. If it brings awareness to one person, it has been every penny worth spent.”
Carol
“I would like to personally thank Prostate Cancer UK for this beautiful memorial, and the way it both celebrates the men taken by prostate cancer and raises awareness.”
Ed
“It’s an amazing memorial and I loved hearing the background story of its design. No questions, just a huge thank you Martin, from the bottom of my heart.”
Amanda
It is an amazingly simple yet poignant memorial. It is transportable, noticeable, and I imagine relatively easy to transcribe. But what is so touching is its reflection: when we pinpoint our loved one, our own reflection is caught on camera. We, who have watched this debilitating disease consume our husbands, fathers and sons. That is so moving. It is of and for our time, flexible and significant. I congratulate Martin Barraud on creating something very, very special. None of us knew quite what we were sponsoring, and I for one am overjoyed I subscribed.”
Victoria
“The memorial is a fantastic way of us all remembering our loved ones.”
Loretta
Birmingham New Street Station
Birmingham New Street Station
London Kings Cross Station
The power of a name
Of everything I have learned from this project, the strongest lesson has been the power of a single name. Almost every photograph people have shared of themselves with the Memorial shows the same gesture: a hand reaching out, pointing to one name among hundreds. Not the sculpture, not the view, just the name.
That instinct is exactly why in memory memorials work so well for charities. A statistic like 63,000 men diagnosed every year is hard to hold in the mind. A single name, engraved, findable, touchable, is not. It turns a cause into a person, and turns a passing visitor into someone who stops, reads, and remembers. The reflective surface does something similar by accident: when someone finds their loved one’s name, their own reflection appears alongside it, so the person looking and the person being remembered share the same surface at the same moment.
The Memorial has carried tributes to the families of footballing great Ray Clemence, and to the fathers of Joe Pasquale and Jenny Powell, alongside hundreds of names of men known only to their own families.
In the press
Former England manager Roy Hodgson visited the Memorial at Bristol Temple Meads in support of the charity, calling it “a really special installation.” The Memorial has been covered by the Daily Mail, BBC South East (whose reporter Ian Palmer covered the original 2021 launch at London Bridge), and other national and regional media.
Dimensions: H2750mm x W1450mm x D1450mm
Materials: Exterior in polished stainless steel, interior framework in mild steel
Dates: Unveiled November 2021, touring to the present day
London Kings Cross Station
London Kings Cross Station
London Kings Cross Station
London Kings Cross Station
Daily Mail, 2nd May 2026 (my composite from the online article – see full piece here).