Stirling’s very own Thistles Centre is the first shopping centre in Scotland to place sanitary bins in men’s bathrooms.
After a recent campaign, “Boys Need Bins” held by Prostate Cancer UK, it was revealed that the lack of sanitary bins available leads to bad mental health in men and boys with incontinence issues.
The lack of sanitary bins makes bathrooms less accessible for men with issues like bladder or bowel incontinence usually due to illnesses like prostate cancer. In a recent survey, 95 per cent of men living with these conditions declared that the lack of sanitary bins in stalls causes them anxiety. 44 per cent of these men have said they go out less nowadays due to their incontinence issues.
Senior Health Influencing Officer at Prostate Cancer UK, Lubna Latif Curtis said that men living with incontinence issues deserve to go shopping “without worrying about whether he can get rid of his used pads hygienically and discreetly.”
A simple thing like bins in a stall may not seem like a big deal, but in fact, this affects thousands of men across the UK. In men over 65, 1 in 3 of them experience bladder incontinence issues. 1 in 20 men over 60 experience bowel incontinence.
As soon as the head management of the Thistles Centre heard about the campaign, they were keen to take action.
Thistles Centre Director, Gary Turnbull said: “I knew we had to implement a change straight away.” He urged other local businesses to get on board and support the Boys Need Bins campaign.
Being in the heart of Stirling, the Thistle Centre provides more than shopping but acts as a social hub for both locals and tourists. It’s important to make sure that it can be accessible to all, and this simple fix helps that to happen.
Lubna Latif Curtis said: “While we’re pushing to get the law changed, so that every man has access to a proper bin, in the meantime it’s exciting that real progress is happening here in Scotland and across the UK.”
There’s still a lot of change that needs to be taken across the country, but Thistles is starting off the trend strong.
Featured Image Credit: Thistles Shopping Centre
