Kent Business School’s resident internet singing star Danielle Marsh has gone viral again with a swinging charity song for Prostate Cancer UK.
The Research Programmes Coordinator at Kent Business School became famous alongside four children and husband Ben, a University of Kent Professor, last year when their lockdown-inspired parody songs, including Totally Fixed Where We Are and Get the New Jab, were viewed millions of times, all over the world.
Teaming up with the national charity, Danielle, Ben and their four children Alfie, 15, Thomas, 13, Ella, 12, and Tess, 9 have released Mack the Knife (Prostate Cancer Facts of Life) and hope it ‘will raise awareness of a disease that will affect 1 in 8 men in our lifetime’. This single is particularly poignant as it comes after Danielle’s father, John Burn, was diagnosed with the disease in December 2018. (click the video link below to listen).
“My dad was a working medic but even he ignored some of the signs and took a little bit too long to sort it out,” Danielle explained when we caught up with her. “He was very lucky to get in just in time to have an operation and was cured. I know for many men, this isn’t the case.”
The family wrote the song as something to be shared amongst themselves before releasing it on their channel, where various doctors and virologists began to notice it. Prostate Cancer UK contacted them in October 2021 to front a campaign to get families talking about the killer illness. After settling the rights to copy the song Mack the Knife, for the parody, the Marshs were invited to film a shimmering video in Hackney Moth club.
“Prostate cancer is a difficult illness because there aren’t many obvious symptoms,” explains Danielle. “It’s also difficult because there aren’t many simple tests you can have to rule things out and because people are embarrassed about it. The money we make from downloads will go to the charity, fundamentally we just want to get people talking about this illness as much as possible. It’s part parody and part biology lesson!”
The Marsh children are used to singing about non-conventional things, but they did cringe a little at some of the language associated with the prostate that is woven into the lyrics.
‘Awareness’
“That’s really what the single highlights, though, that it shouldn’t be weird to talk about parts of your body that might need checking. We’ve come so far with cervical cancer and breast cancer, when 15 years ago they were seen as too embarrassing. Prostate cancer really needs the same level of awareness.”
Danielle feels grateful her dad is here to see all the hard work they have done for the cause, even starring in the video, himself.
“My dad is bubbling with excitement about what we are doing, he is so proud, he tells everyone about it and shared it as widely as he possibly can.”
Danielle, whilst still working tirelessly for KBS has been appearing on radio and TV shows throughout the year with her family. Their next song is all about the menopause.
“Our songs are about things we talk about as a family, that affect us. But, with parodies like Have the New Jab and this new one, people start conversations – that’s been a reason to grasp the nettle with important issues.”
The Marsh family will be donating all profits from downloads of this song to Prostate Cancer UK.