Quirky moustaches for a cause this November?

Don’t be surprised if you see men in your city wearing different, sometimes weird moustaches or beards. Chances are they might be participating in a worldwide movement to raise awareness about prostate cancer and other issues of men’s health.

The month of “November” is celebrated across the world as “MOVEMBER”, a movement that originated in Australia aimed at drawing attention to and create awareness on Prostate Cancer and Men’s health. It all started when in 2003 two Australian brothers decided to wear quirky moustaches.

The movement soon became a rage worldwide with people as well as medical practitioners working against prostate cancer joining the cause.

Prostate cancer has emerged as a leading killer globally. Of the 7.6 million deaths due to cancer worldwide, one-sixth caused by prostate cancer which is also today the second most frequently diagnosed cancer type after lung cancer,”T.R.Murali, Urologist, Meenakshi Hospital says.

Prostate cancer is becoming alarmingly common among ageing men. In India, where life expectancy has increased to 65.48, prostate cancer incidence is growing by 1% every year. However, not many people are aware of this problem and its treatment to prevent it from turning fatal. We need to up the ante against the disease by spreading awareness about prostate cancer and initiatives like Movember are of great help for this.

The month of November has been renamed “Movember”. In the beginning of the month, men register at the website with a clean-shaven face and grow their moustache over the month.

Clean shaven guys called 'Mo Bros' register at Movember.com and then for the rest of the month they groom, trim and wax their moustache. They become walking, talking billboards for 30 days, and through their actions and words raise awareness on men's health, including prostate cancer, testicular cancer and depression.

“Anything different and quirky does attract attention. An interesting moustache will definitely turn more heads than a billboard stating ‘prevent prostate cancer’. This is why we have joined in this movement. Through this issues of men’s health like prostate cancer become the talking point in conversations, discussions and debates. This is what we want,” says a Movember activist.

This movement is very popular in Australia, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Singapore, France and Israel to name a few and is picking up in India.