Movember

Firstly I should apologise for my lack of posts recently, the reason for this is that I have been on holiday for the past two weeks! Lucky me! However I am now back at school and into the full swing of things and plan to write a bit about Movember this week, an amusing take on November with a very good cause behind it!

The idea began in Australia in 2003 with Adam Garone and has since evolved into a worldwide fund raising campaign to raise awareness for men's health, particularly prostate cancer. The "Mo" in Movember is Australian slang for moustache and the idea behind the campaign is to begin the month of November clean shaven and grow a stylish moustache to show your support and gain sponsorship for doing so.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer amongst men and around 36,000 men are diagnosed each year in the UK. The prostate itself is a small gland (about the size of a walnut) located between the penis and the bladder.*

As a consequence symptoms of prostate cancer are usually urinary related and only noticeable when the cancerous tumour has grown large enough to put pressure on the urethra. For example needing to urinate more frequently, difficulty in starting to urinate and weak flow.*

However such symptoms are not a definite indicator of prostate cancer as the prostate gland can get bigger as men get older and press on the urethra causing similar symptoms. This is known as benign prostate disease.*

The diagnosis of prostate cancer is not straight forward but often involves a screening test followed by a biopsy. The levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) (a protein produced by the prostate) in the blood can be measured however levels can also increase with age. A patient could also undergo a digital rectal examination (DRE), this is an examination of the rectum which is close to the prostate gland to feel for a hard bumpy area. Finally a biopsy of tissue is taken from the prostate and is studied in the lab for cancerous cells.* (*Source: NHS Choices)

The slogan of the charity is "changing the face of men's health one moustache at a time" - quite literally!

This video on 'Ted Talks' about Movember is REALLY worth watching, its informative but will definitely make you laugh and is given by Adam Garone himself.

The campaign has three main aims: to improve awareness and educate the general public, provide survivor support programmes and fund prostate cancer research. Since it's founding it has become the largest contributor to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and raised over $126 million last year.