Big Lorry Blog: How going to the toilet could save your life

Using eye-level adverts in toilets to grab truck drivers’ attention has long been a tactic used by marketing people to try and sell you something, but now the Chippenham Pit Stop is using them for a different reason – to try and save lives.

At the Pit Stop, which is just off junction of the M4 in Wiltshire, the space is used throughout the year to alert their customers to men’s health issues and particularly to those that might affect those who spend long hours behind a wheel every day.

This month, the Pit Stop ads are supporting the Movember Foundation’s annual November campaign to collect cash for charity while raising awareness of the threats to men’s health.

Health campaign coordinator and former Bristol nurse Lisa Hatherell said all too often men ignored the symptoms of such illnesses as prostate and testicular cancer until it was too late. “We are doing our bit to promote this world wide awareness campaign by bringing attention to it and giving out posters which we have designed especially for our trucker customers,” she said.

“But we don’t stop there because every month we draw our customers attention via these ads to a whole range of health issues including obesity, high blood pressure and strokes, the dangers from all of which can be reduced by adopting a healthier lifestyle.”