Get your mo growing for Movember

Passionate "mo bros" are called to embark on their Movember journey to raise funds and awareness for prostate and testicular cancer during November.

The local Movember campaign had partnered with the Cancer Association of SA (Cansa) where funds raised from each campaign are to be allocated towards men’s health survivorship and research programmes.

Mo bros and mo sistas (the women in their lives) were invited to take part in a series of shave-in events around the country.

The rules are simple: after starting the month clean-shaven, each mo bro must grow and groom a moustache according to the rules for the entire month of November. No sideburns or goatees are allowed.

The aim of the campaign is for participants to become walking, talking billboards for men’s health issues, driving the conversation and, in turn, awareness, while securing donations or sponsorship for their moustaches through their grooming efforts.

Movember launch events are planned at various venues across the country, with a series of infamous “gala partés” to take place at the end of November, where mo bros and mo sistas dress up to compete for the title of Man of Movember and Miss Movember.

According to Cansa statistics, SA men have a shorter life expectancy than women with the rate of cancer diagnoses among men being one in six, compared to one in eight for women.

More than 4 000 cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed annually, with more than 2 500 men estimated to die of the disease each year.
These statistics point to the urgent need for men to know the status of their health, whether it is risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke and common cancers.