It’s not too late for men to think about their health

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on November 26, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Even though November is ending soon, it is never too late to think about Movember and what it represents as many men struggle with mental or physical health on a regular basis and in order to bring awareness to it City Hall will be lit blue tonight.
Evan Connor, senior manager of development with Movember Canada spoke to the Herald recently about the annual campaign and the many benefits it has brought to men around the world.
“Movember is the world’s largest men’s health organization. We are a global movement. We’ve been here in Canada for 18 years and we have three cause key areas, mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer,” said Connor.
 He said the campaign itself runs through the month of November every year and people are encouraged to grow moustaches and get active in starting the conversation around mental while trying to fundraise for the causes’ programs and resources.
 “The campaign is a combination of fun, but also finding those moments to connect with the people in your life, specifically the men, to just have a conversation, reinforced with men that you’re there for them, reinforcing them to take care of their own health and well-being, both physical and mental,” said Connor.
 He said the idea is to make sure that more men are living longer, healthier and happier lives because they believe healthier men, in turn help their communities, households, workplaces, and we all play a role in that.
 When talking about why moustaches for Movember, Connor said it all traced back to a conversation that took place in the early 2000s in Australia.
 “Way back in 2003 in Melbourne, Australia, there was a couple of guys in a bar talking about different types of ’70s fashion that hasn’t come back into rotation. They talked about mustaches and thought it would be a good idea to try and bring the mustache back,” said Connor.
 He said back then they did not have the vision of the mustache ultimately becoming the symbol that represents Movember.
 “They decided to grow moustaches throughout the month of November just for fun and celebrated the end of the month with a costume party that coincide with one of our founders’ birthdays,” said Connor.
 He said that what they didn’t realize is that for a lot of guys growing their first moustache is a bit of a conversation starter. Whether it was from angry wives or friends giving them kudos and props for growing it out.
 “They realized people often ask why you’re growing this moustache and at that time they didn’t have anything to tie it to. It didn’t have any charitable component to it,” said Connor.
 He said that changed after one of the founders who was working in the ad agency space on a breast cancer campaign, saw the power of the pink ribbon and the unity that it created.
 “After this he figured they could tie the mpustache to a men’s health cause and figured out that prostate cancer is just as common in men as breast cancer is in women and quickly decide the mustache is going to be the “hairy ribbon” for men’s health,” said Connor.
 He said after that, in November 2004 for the first time there was any fund raising done for it and raised $50,000.
 “They made a contribution to an institution in Australia that was in the prostate cancer space and the wheels were in motion. Then it exploded year over year and it came over to Canada in 2007,” said Connor.
 He said to date, Canadians have really stepped up, but they’ve also played a pretty significant role supporting the prostate cancer side.
 “In Canada Movember is the second largest funder of prostate cancer outside of our federal government, so they really have been leading the charge and we’re quite lucky that Canadians rally every year. We have just under 50,000 Canadians involved again this year,” said Connor.
 He said it is crazy to think it all started with a conversation in a bar in Australia and now Movember has led to some transformational breakthroughs in men’s health.
On the mental health side of the campaign Connor said it is very important for Movember to help men open up as the statistics for men’s mental health are pretty scary.
“We lose a man a minute around the world to suicide, here in Canada three out of four suicides are by men,” said Connor.
 He said this is in part due to society making it seem unmanly for men to show emotion or share their feelings, but surveys they have conducted show that around 70 per cent of men actually want to talk but they do not feel like they have a safe space to do so.
“We do a lot in different community groups. I work a lot in Alberta with Canada’s energy sector in education around normalizing the conversation and the fact that we all go through tough times and all of us are going to have moments in our life we were going to need help, ” said Connor.

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