Everyday Health Celebrates Movember: Michael’s Mustache Turns Four

November has always been a month I’ve looked forward to; leaves changing, hooded sweatshirts, mid-season football, and getting the family together for Thanksgiving to share our ridiculous stories from the past year.

Over the past four years these things haven’t changed — but I’ve added one more thing to this list — a mustache.

Michael’s Movember mustache.

While mustaches in November might not be a common thing for most 30-year-olds to look forward to, for the 1.1 million Movember participants November is a time to raise awareness formen’s health. (Think of the mustache as the pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness month.) I’m sure my story is common among my fellow Mo’Bros and Mo’Sistas:

A little over 4 years ago I got a call from my mother letting me know my father had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. I felt like I had gotten punched in the stomach. My mother started to get choked up, so she handed my father the phone so I could talk to him directly. In his fatherly way, he assured me that everything would be fine and that this was only a speed bump in his medical history.

Fortunately they were able to catch the prostate cancer in its infancy, thanks to routine checkups. If detected and treated early, prostate cancer has a 97 percent success rate and so my dad started radiation and was considered in remission within a few short months.

Later that year when celebrating Christmas with family friends, I learned that my uncle was also diagnosed with prostate cancer. He was also able to catch his in the early stages, since he started going regularly for examinations as a result of my father’s diagnosis.

It was then I realized there must be something that I can do to help raise awareness about prostate cancer and the importance of routine testing.

After catching my friends up on my father’s health, my best friend (and top fundraising partner) James brought up the non-profit Movember. That night I went home and read every piece of content Movember had to offer, not just about prostate cancer but for all of the men’s health conditions they stand for. I learned some pretty shocking statistics:

• 1 in 2 men, and 1 in 3 women, will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.
• Over 238,000 new cases of the disease will be diagnosed and almost 30,000 men will die of prostate cancer in 2013.
• More than 3.5 million cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year.
• Globally, 5.3 million deaths will be attributed to physical inactivity.
• Over 6 million men are diagnosed with depression each year.
• 24% of men are less likely to go to the doctor compared to women.

The statistics above are staggering, especially the last bullet. Who knows what would have happened if my father hadn’t gone to the doctor’s for his checkups (something I’d rather n

ot think about). Since I was able to make a personal connection with each of the bullets above, I knew that this was how I wanted to go about fundraising and spreading awareness for men’s health.

So here we are; back for another Movember. At the end of the month, my family will get together for Thanksgiving. We’ll sit around the table and tell each other our ridiculous stories from the previous year, eat too much and then move to the couch to watch football. Most of us will take a late afternoon nap, or eat until we pass out. But best of all I get to celebrate another year with my father.

You can follow me on my journey via the Movember website, Twitter or Instagram.