It is now the beginning of November, marked by colorful foliage, leftover candy and thoughts of the upcoming holidays. It will also be the first of Movember, the last day to cleanly shave that upper lip for a month. The rest of the month we are to let the mustaches emerge and flourish as a reminder of prostate cancer in the community.
The Movember movement began in 1999 with a group of young men in Adelaide, South Australia who coined the term "Movember" and the idea of growing moustaches for charity throughout the month of November. Part awareness raiser and part fundraiser, it is a time to talk openly about prostate cancer and to contribute to research efforts into this most common non-skin cancer in men, and the second highest cancer killer in men. So grow those handlebars, horseshoes and fu manchus for the month and don't forget to talk to the men in your lives about prostate cancer.