Kerry Geale, the president of the Wagga Prostate Cancer Support Group, believes men’s health advocates should take a look at how the McGrath foundation put breast cancer on the radar.

“The reality is, all the breast care nurses that are being employed around the place are being employed by the McGrath Foundation, not by the cancer council, not by governments,” he said.

“We need to get some champions to help us raise that sort of money.”

The Prostate Cancer Support Group has this year funded scholarships for five Wagga nurses to undergo a course to better equip them to deal with the needs of prostate cancer patients.

Mr Geale said both major parties had shown some commitment to funding solutions for prostate cancer sufferers, but solutions lay beyond simply asking for a federal or state hand-out.

While disappointed Wagga had missed out in both rounds of a federal program providing prostate care nurses to hospitals, Mr Geale admitted the nurse would probably be “stretched incredibly” if one had been allocated to the city.

Mr Geale’s comments come as a petition circulated by Labor state election candidate Dan Hayes regarding the issue of nurses is set to be tabled in the Senate.

The petition has reached 1000 signatures and will be presented to the Senate in coming weeks by Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill.

When asked if tabling the petition to the Senate would help get something done in Wagga about the nurse issue, Mr Hayes said: “I certainly hope so”.

“(The petition) is about keeping that pressure and keeping it in the mind of the decision makers that this is something that’s needed for this area,” he said.

But Mr Geale is sceptical about the petition’s impact.

“I don’t even see (prostate cancer) as a federal issue,” he said.