Following are excerpts from articles published by prostatecancer.ca and mensjournal.com
Movember is the month formerly known as November, where men and women across the globe join together to raise awareness and funds for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer, testicular cancer and men’s mental health.
Men (also known as Mo Bros) sign up online at Movember.com. Starting clean-shaven on November 1st, these men donate their face for 30 days by growing and grooming the best moustache they can muster. Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for men’s health raising funds and awareness along the way. Women (also known as Mo Sistas) play a key supporting role by signing up as team captains, recruiting Mo Bros, helping to raise funds, and encouraging the men in their life to take action when it comes to their health.
Mo growth is seen around the globe each November. In 2014, official campaigns were held in 21 countries across five continents.
Prostate Cancer Canada is proud to be one of Movember’s Canadian beneficiary partners. “Through this relationship we are advancing prostate cancer research and support services for men and their families living with the disease.”
The fact that Movember is now a national phenomena — with 4 million people participating each year — is nothing short of spectacular considering the history of this decade old event.
Movember started around 2003 in a pretty traditional Australian way: over beers.
“It was my brother, and a mate having a few” CEO Adam Garone explained in a 2011 TED talk, “and the conversation turned to 70s fashion — how everything seems to come back into style. And after a few more beers, we said, ‘What about the mustache? Why hasn’t that come back?’ Then one more beer and it was, ‘Whatever happened to the mustache?’…. The day ended with a challenge: to bring the mustache back.”
The Rules of Movember?
1. You must begin with a clean-shaven face on November 1.
2. For the entire month of November you must grow and groom a mustache.
3. No beards. No goatees. Mustaches* only. (*Fu manchus are acceptable)
4. You must act like a “true country gentleman” throughout the month.
It wasn’t easy at first, Garone added: “Trust me, when you’re growing a mustache back in 2003 — and this was before the ironic hipster mustache movement — it created a lot of controversy. My boss wouldn’t let me go and see clients, my girlfriend at the time, who is no longer my girlfriend, hated it. Parents would shuffle kids away from us.”
Those would be temporary hurdles, and the movement’s first year was modestly successful. “We came together at the end of the month and celebrated our journey. And in 2004 I said to the guys, ‘That was so much fun. We need to legitimize this so we can get away with it year-on-year.’ So we started thinking about that, and we were inspired by all the women around us and what they were doing for breast cancer. And there’s nothing for men’s health.”
The idea is awareness, education, and an opportunity to try something new and fun with facial hair while working toward a cause.
But Garone and Hedstrom were met with skepticism again when the movement expanded worldwide. “When Movember first came to the US in 2007 it was fairly unknown and localized to a few markets…. Not many people knew that it was one of the largest and most successful men’s health charities in Australia.”
It eventually caught on (thanks in no small part to the aforementioned hipster movement) and now Movember is one of the most successful campaigns in the fight against prostate and testicular cancer, and in the funding of men’s mental health intiatives, notes Mark Hedstrom, US Director at Movember.
“When you think about it, we really have redefined charity,” Garone says.
“Our ribbon is a hairy ribbon…. We’re not about finding an Australian cure or a Canadian cure, we’re about finding the cure.”
