Movember kicks off with country style

By Josephine Kwan

The annual moustache-growing charity event promoting men’s health has announced its new ambassadors for the year.

Former Australian cricketers Max Walker and Dennis Lillee, and Australian former world champion marathon runner Robert de Castella are going to be Movember’s 2011 “Mo Mentors”.

“I’ve had my moustache for over 33 years, so as a ‘Mo-mentor’ I hope I can inspire others to be part of Movember in 2011,” Mr de Castella said.

Spokesperson of Movember Greg Rafferty said the ambassadors would take on a variety of roles, depending on what sort of field they are in. “We would like them to firstly grow a moustache across the month and then, to be available to talk on men’s health and to promote Movember in their daily lives,” he said.

The charity foundation has a specific focus on promoting awareness for prostate cancer and depression in men.

“We find that they are the two areas we’d like to focus on because they affect so many men and their families as well.”

“It’s obviously a very stressful time for a man when he has been told that he has prostate cancer and then obviously he is more susceptible to developing depression and anxiety,” Mr Rafferty said.

According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation statistics, each year around 20,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in Australia, and close to 3,000 men die from the disease.

The 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being showed that one in eight men in Australia would experience depression in their adult lifetime.

Mr Rafferty said that this year’s designated Movember moustache style would represent a country gentleman. “The creative side of this is about taking
pride and kind of like one handcrafted thing is worth more than a thousand and mass-produced products,” he said. “It’s like something you craft on your face.”

Last year, Movember Australia raised close to $25 million with 130,000 registered participants. Over 90 per cent of the funds went to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Beyondblue, the national depression initiative and programs run by the Movember Foundation.

“We’d love to achieve something similar or obviously even more,” Mr Rafferty said.

Joe Mihaljevic, a 30-year-old IT technician, will be joining Movember this year with four other colleagues at work. “It’s a nice light-hearted sort of charitable event and is also a bit of a team unifying sort of activity,” he said.