Jools Holland praises musician for cancer campaign

Jools Holland has praised a trumpet player for raising awareness of prostate cancer and encouraging men to get checked for the condition.

Dave Land, from Norfolk, who has been credited on more than 170 albums, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2021 after being urged by his friends to get a prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test.

"The whole point about getting this message out is if you catch [prostate cancer] early the chances are you're going to be OK... it's really important," Land said.

In a message, Holland said: "I'd like to congratulate and support Dave in the excellent job he's doing to promote awareness of prostate cancer and to encourage men to get checked with a simple test."

The charity Prostate Cancer UK said the condition affected one in eight men.

Land said a number of his close friends received their own prostate cancer diagnosis "too late".

"It's a lot of scans, biopsys and that. It's slow moving so you live with [the condition]," he added.

In March Land released an arrangement of O Magnum Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen at Norwich Cathedral, which was titled Nine Daves.

Typically composed for a choir, the arrangement featured Land playing all nine parts, when he described as a "labour of love".

"It was out of my comfort zone to do something like that. I normally do pop music... I set myself a challenge to do it," he said.

During his career, Land has been a part of the Band of HM Coldstream Guards, the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing orchestra and has worked around the world in US and the Caribbean.

In London, he spent a number of years working with Andrew Lloyd-Webber including on the musical Starlight Express, until it closed at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in 2002, and Cats.

Despite working with big names including Leo Sayer, Shirley Bassey and Katrina and the Waves, he described his career as "luck of the draw, if you're in the right place."

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