If you haven’t yet noticed the amount of men currently sporting an extra amount of facial fair this month, then welcome to Movember. The month when those men who are brave enough, change their appearance for a good cause.
A ‘Mo’, short for moustache, is what men will grow in order to raise money for men’s health.
Prostate cancer is fast becoming the biggest killer among men and Movember is the month in which this is recognised. One in six men will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime with one dying every sixteen minutes.
Movember was founded in Australia in 2003 and since then has become a worldwide phenomenon. Inspired by all the various events women have taken part in for breast cancer awareness month, the potential to do the same for men was realised.
Last year Movember raised more than £26 million pounds across the globe for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Over £100 million has been raised worldwide for the cause with official campaigns in over ten countries.
On the Movember website you can sign up either yourself or a team of friends, and create your own Mospace page in which you can get people to donate to your cause.
To do their part for Movember, football club The Dancing Raindrops have signed up as a team and are proud to be a part of Movember. As a team they have already raised £290, and there’s still two weeks left to go.
Matthew Hoyle is a member of The Dancing Raindrops and has raised over £200 himself: “Four years ago I lost my Grandpa to prostate cancer. It’s not ever really talked about, so if I can grow a little bit of facial hair to raise money and awareness about prostate cancer then that’s surely a good thing.”
Matt says that doing something for charity is always an achievement: “Raising money for charity is always a good thing and is a personal achievement for anyone. One key thing that I think is important and that I feel people need to be made more aware of is prostate cancer.
“If I can maybe persuade a few more people to take up to the Movember Challenge next year to raise more money then that would be an achievement,” he says.
Matt’s team mate Andrew Rowland has more than one reason for growing his moustache: “I’m taking part for the obvious reason of trying to raise awareness of prostate cancer for men. But also, I’m doing it for Matt as a sign of support as he has lost someone close to him because of the illness,” he says.
If you would like to donate, visit Movember.com. You can find The Dancing Raindrops FC mospace page here.
Just mo’info to add to this subject while we are at it..
“Only about one in 10 prostate cancers detected by screening actually poses a threat to a man’s life, according to a new analysis conducted by researchers from the University if Cambridge”.
“A common prostate cancer treatment may significantly increase men’s risk of heart problems, according to a study conducted by researchers from King’s College London and presented at a joint meeting of the European Cancer Organization and the European Society for Medical Oncology in Berlin”.
“If none of the men diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer were ever treated, 97 percent of them would still survive the disease, according to a study conducted by Swedish researchers and published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute”.
“As many as 50 percent of all prostate cancer diagnoses may be cases of over-diagnosis, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal”.
Funny how these cancer fear marketers never tell the whole story..