Jenna Crowe

Staff Writer

November brings joys such as Thanksgiving and sweater weather, but it also gives way to the Movember Foundation and its No-Shave-November campaign.

According to the Movember Foundation web page, every November the foundation challenges men to grow a moustache, or both men and women to make a commitment to get active and move or host an event, all of which sparks conversations and raises vital funds and awareness for men’s health.

“The moustache is a conversation starter,” said  Andy Leonetti, the development manager at Movember. “It helps break down barriers.”

Back in 2003 when Movember was just getting started in Australia, a group of thirty guys decided to grow moustaches to bring attention to prostate cancer. Prostate cancer and breast cancer have the same rate of diagnosis, yet  it seemed like no one was talking about it.

It is often a societal expectation that men act tough when there is something wrong with them rather than go to the doctor, so having a topic as simple as a moustache be able to lead into a conversation about prostate cancer, mental health or other topics concerning men’s health is extremely beneficial.

“At Thanksgiving, when family would ask me about my moustache, it actually led to a conversation about my family’s health history,” Leonetti said.

Each year the Movember Foundation also raises money for other foundations across the world. One such organization within the U.S. is the Men’s Cancer Navigation Services, which hopes to provide free, comprehensive one-on-one support to men affected by testicular or prostate cancer. The Men’s Cancer Navigation Services has already received seven-and-a-half million dollars in funding.

Another organization, the Daffodil Centres, is located in Ireland. This program seeks to provide cancer information, advice and support to parents, families, visitors and staff in a local hospital environment. This project, which is now completed, received 564,000 euros in funding, which is equal to 628,409 U.S. dollars.

Movember also puts a focus on men’s mental health, which is where the organization Well@Work comes into play. This organization is based in Australia and hopes to develop and test an innovative e-mental health program for men and their managers in the workplace in order to improve the mental health of working men. This organization has received about three-and-a-half million Australian dollars, which is equal to a little over two-and-a-half million U.S. dollars.

Leonetti encourages college students to get involved, because male college students are more at risk for testicular cancer.

“There’s still plenty of time to get involved,” Leonetti said.