It's Movember!!

Hi all, this posting is going to be a bit different than most of my other postings. For those of you that don’t know, November is Men’s Health Awareness month. As such, it has been renamed Movember and there are thousands of Movember campaigns being done around the world. The idea of Movember is not only to raise awareness of the health issues men face, but to also raise funds to help with research for such serious and often deadly diseases such as prostate cancer. I have 2 uncles that passed away from prostate cancer and I have to wonder if they had been more aware of the medical issues men can have with their prostates, if they would have been checked sooner.

Here are some facts that have been posted on the National Movember web site:

• The average life expectancy for men is four to five years less than women.
• 1 in 4 Canadians are expected to die from cancer.
• 1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.
• In 2012, 26,500 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in men and 4,000 will lose their battle.
• 1 in 4 cancer patients experience clinical depression
• Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in Canadian males between the ages of 15 and 29.
• Tobacco is the single most preventable cause of cancer in Canada, responsible for over 37,000 deaths annually.
• 1 in every 11 men will develop lung cancer.
• While not as common, men can get breast cancer. About 200 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed among men and about 55 men will die from the disease.
• More than 75,000 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer are diagnosed each year in Canada.
• An estimated 6.6% of the population over the age of 20 has diabetes in Canada.
• Approximately 6 million Canadian adults have high blood pressure, representing 19% of the adult population; 17% are unaware of their condition. Even 30 year olds can have high blood pressure!
• 1 in 5 of Canadians will personally experience a mental illness each year
• Four times as many men commit suicide compared with women

Now I don’t know about you, but these stats are just mind blowing! And scary…these are our husbands, father’s, brothers and sons we are talking about. And they are dieing for reasons that can be avoided. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. To read up on what Movember is and the work that they are trying to accomplish click here and it will take you directly to their National page.

The reason that I am writing about this is because my nephew, Chris, is part of the Movember movement and is trying to raise funds. If you are able to, please check out his blog and if you are able to, please make a donation to the cause. It doesn't matter how big or small your donation is, every little bit helps. If you are not comfortable making a donation to his site, please consider the national site or look for a Movember fundraiser near you. 

 

We all rally around the fundraisers for Breast Cancer and for cancer as a whole, let’s rally around our men and let them know that their health is just as important to us as ours is to them.

 

Thanks for visiting….Charlene