For the month of November this year I'm participating in Movember. At the beginning of the month I started clean shaven and for the remainder of the month I'm growing and maintaining a moustache in order to raise awareness of men's health issues. In particular depression and prostate cancer. This photo to the left shows my progress after the first two weeks (yeah its hard to see, the colour blends in :-) ).
Some facts:
- Depression affects 1 in 6 men. Most don't seek help and untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide. Having seen the effect of depression first hand this year its certainly not something I would wish to see go untreated.
- Last year 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in Australia and more than 2,900 died from it. This is equivalent to the number of women that die of breast cancer annually.
As part of participating in Movember I am seeking donations that will be passed on to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative. The Movember Foundation is a registered charity, so all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
To sponsor my dodgy mo (as I've named it) follow this link: http://movember.wezm.net/.