Nick Toone watched his daughter Ella score in the Euro 2022 final at Wembley, a 2-1 England win over Germany. The next day he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died in 2024, three days short of his 60th birthday.
Ella Toone, the Manchester United and England forward, has now become an ambassador for Prostate Cancer UK, two years after losing him. She is 26 and won the European championships with England in 2022 and 2025.
“Dad was my absolute hero,” she said. “He was always there at every match; it was him that gave me my love of the game. He is the reason why I am a Lioness. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about him and mourn what my family has lost.”
She pointed to the charity’s own figures. Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK, affecting one in eight men, and a man dies of it every 45 minutes. Toone said that within ten years almost three quarters of a million men will be living with the disease or its impact. “These men aren’t just numbers,” she said. “They’re dads just like mine.”
The charity describes itself as the UK’s biggest public funder of prostate cancer research. Toone said she hopes its work will make screening a reality and give men more treatment options with fewer side effects, “so men like my dad can be diagnosed early enough to be treated and can spend more time with the people they love.”
A family kept in the dark
Her father’s illness was largely hidden. Writing for the Players’ Tribune last year, Toone said his death was a shock even to people close to him, “because no one hardly knew he was ill.” Asked why she never told anyone, she wrote, she had no answer: “I didn’t know half of it.”
The announcement was timed for Father’s Day weekend. Red Roses rugby player Alex Matthews, whose father Dave is being treated for an incurable prostate cancer, joined as an ambassador at the same time. On Sunday 21 June, at 12pm and 6.30pm, the two women will appear on the Piccadilly Lights in London in a tribute to “epic dads”.
Chiara De Biase, the charity’s fundraising and strategy director, said the pair’s “passion, profile and competitive spirit” would help spread the message that “knowing your risk can save your life.” Men can check their risk online in about 30 seconds at prostatecanceruk.org/risk-check.
Sources
- Ella Toone becomes Prostate Cancer UK ambassador after losing ‘hero’ father – AOL
- Ella Toone MBE and Alex Matthews join as our newest charity ambassadors
- Ella Toone becomes Prostate Cancer UK ambassador after losing ‘hero’ father
