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Goodbye November, hello Movember

Moustache pride at the Red Cactus (From L to R: Raymond Valcourt, Paul Rajotte, Joel Marcoux)
photo: Joel Marcoux

This year 4,400 men in Canada will die from prostate cancer and 25,500 will be diagnosed with the disease.

Prostate Cancer Canada, the only national foundation for men’s health in Canada, estimates that one in six men will be diagnosed with the disease that often has no signs or symptoms in its early stages.

The good news is the disease is curable in its early stages. This makes awareness and annual testing essential.

Enter Movember, a non-profit organization that started in Australia in 2003 with 30 participants. The organization has since spread worldwide and is active in the United States, New Zealand, Spain, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Participants (Mo Bros) start with a clean shaven face and let their moustache grow all month long.

The idea is to get donations from family and friends that will ultimately be donated to a prostate cancer foundation. The moustache also acts as a symbol of prostate cancer awareness much like a pink ribbon acts as a symbol for breast cancer awareness. In Canada, those donations go to Prostate Cancer Canada.

Catherine Patterson, the Marketing and Communications Co-ordinator for Prostate Cancer Canada, is optimistic about this year’s Movember. “In our first year we raised $500,000 and had 2,000 participants. The number keeps growing, last year it was $2.4 million and 9,400 participants. This year we hope to raise $4 million and have 18,000 participants.”

Over 17,000 people have registered already to participate and $600,000 has been raised.

“This is such an important cause,” says Patterson. “In Australia, men talk about their health issues the way that women in Canada openly discuss breast cancer. It’s like there’s a stigma attached to discussing men’s health.”

Jay Richardson, host of The Show with Sarah and Jay on Winnipeg’s Curve 94.3, agrees.

“I don’t know what the cultural differences in Australia are but in Canada, a man is expected to be able to strangle a bear with his bare hands. When it comes to a man talking about his junk being sick it implies weakness and vulnerability when really the weakness lies in not talking about men’s health.”

In order to help get rid of this stigma, Richardson is hopping on board the moustache train.

“I grew a moustache last year but it wasn’t official,” says Richardson. “This year I have a team of 16.” He has teamed up with Winnipeg based website Chrisd to create Movember Mondays. The site will post pictures of Richardson every Monday to track his progress.

At the end of the month, Mo Bros and Mo Sistas (girls who help spread the word about Movember) celebrate Movember at patries that give out prizes for the best moustache. In Winnipeg, this year's Movember celebration will take place at the Red Cactus at 691 Corydon Avenue on November 25.

Mo Bros can register here as an individual or as part of a team and find out where the nearest Movember party is.

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