My Spousal Unit, The Car Guy, joined a team last week. The membership fee was quite steep – he had to remove his moustache. He started growing his moustache about the time our youngest daughter was born, 34 years ago. So it was emotionally a big deal. Actually it wasn’t such a big deal when you think about it. It is not like the moustache was composed of the original hair he sprouted 34 years ago. And in a few weeks it should be almost back to normal.
The moustache shaving and/or growing of, is all part of the fund raising event called Movember. Movember’s primary campaign objective is:
To raise awareness of men’s health issues, specifically cancers affecting men. We want everyone to know that most cancers are highly curable if caught in the early stages- including prostate and testicular cancer. Movember aims to increase early detection, diagnosis and effective treatment, as this will ultimately reduce the number of deaths from cancer.
Not all the participants in Movember have a moustache to take off. Some will be growing a moustache where one did not exist before. My Spousal Unit, for reasons known only to him, decided to also remove all the hair off his head. This was an action he immediately regretted, for his head was suddenly very cold. November isn’t a very warm month in our part of the world.
I say “remove” because he didn’t choose the route of shaving. Our youngest daughter (The Bead Maker) has a pair of electric clippers, and he asked her to use the clippers to shear him down to baldness. It isn’t the first time she has done this for him – or rather to him. She performed the same task on him, and much of her wedding party, after dinner on her Wedding Day. Her wedding party included a number of people like herself who are cancer survivors, so in solidarity many of them shaved their heads to raise money for Cancer Research. The “After” Wedding photo is not one you normally see…
I’m glad to see men proactively talking about prostate and testicular cancer – or any cancer for that matter. We have found that our family is not unique in having a cancer story to tell. But we didn’t know about other people’s cancer stories until we started telling ours. These shared stories made us all stronger. Growing these moustaches not only raises awareness, it brings out stories about the men who have been touched by Prostate Cancer. And that is a good thing, as Martha would say…
Amusives 