A GROUP of golfers are preparing to tee off through the night to help raise money for prostate cancer.

A 24-hour golf marathon is being held at Thornbury Golf Club later this month to help raise some cash for charity but the event will also allow players to show their support for a fellow member who is currently battling cancer.

The event will raise money for the Bristol Urological Institute's (BUI) Prostate Cancer Appeal, which is Thornbury Golf Club’s charity for 2009.

Bob Sharples, 61 and the club’s Seniors Captain for this year, is currently being treated for prostate cancer. He hopes the 24-hour marathon will help to raise awareness of the illness as well as money for the charity.

He said: "There is a great difference between the attitude of men and women to it - women will talk quite openly about breast cancer, but men won't discuss their problems.

"But everyone knows someone who's got or has had prostate cancer and the more awareness we can get the greater the chance there is of lives being saved."

Former club captain, Mike Bostic, along with club professional, Mike Smedley, and his two assistants, Dave Bristow and Nat Payne, and club manager Mark Readman and member Jerry Thomas will tee off at 6pm on Sunday, June 21, the longest day of the year.

The team expect to play more than six rounds before sinking the final putt 24 hours later. Club members are being asked to guess how many pars the players will record between them.

Thornbury Golf Club has already held an event in aid of the BUI and is planning another corporate golf day in September.

During the year the club hopes to raise £5,000, which will go towards the purchase of a new scanner to aid diagnosis at the BUI at Southmead Hospital.

Neil Dymond, fundraiser at the BUI, said: "The generosity of people like this, and those who sponsor them, make it possible to get some new equipment, which in a lot of cases can quite literally be life saving."