Behold the terrible moustache that I’m growing for “Movember”. Please read a little more about why I’m growing a moustache, and what I’m trying to achieve by it.
Last year, I grew a moustache primarily to raise awareness about depression: it’s a cause I feel passionate about, and I was happy to raise some money for beyondblue – a group that are helping people with depression get better.
But that was a year ago, when I had no living relatives who had been diagnosed with cancer.
In December last year, a close family member had cancer detected early, and removed. A few months later, the same close family member had a different cancer detected early, and removed. They’re currently okay, by the way.
Without early screening, who knows what might have happened?
The biggest cancer risk for men in Australia is prostate cancer:
- Each year in Australia, close to 3,300 men die of prostate cancer – equal to the number of women who die from breast cancer annually. Around 20,000 new cases are diagnosed in Australia every year.
- 1 in 9 men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime, but few know that there are (non-intrusive) tests for cancer detection, or even how high the risk is.
Source: http://www.prostate.org.au/articleLive/pages/Prostate-Cancer-Statistics.html
What would I like you to do?
- Talk to at least one man about the risks of an awkward-to-discuss but dangerous cancer. (sending them the link above might be a good start)
- Consider donating some money – say $5 – to Movember.
Thanks for making my aesthetic suffering worthwhile!