Prostate Cancer Awareness Awareness

Alternatively, I suppose, Prostate Cancer Awareness². [Ed: Well, it gave me a chance to use the superscript HTML tag.]

When we were enjoying Guernsey last week thanks to the hospitality of our friends, Steve & Rosemary, on Friday morning Carol appeared for breakfast wearing a white T-shirt emblazoned with a large pink ribbon. Almost everybody must be aware of the pink ribbon symbol and knows that it represents support for and/or awareness of breast cancer issues. Even most men know that the pink ribbon is associated with breast cancer.

Resplendent in her pink-ribboned T-shirt, directed more at Rosemary than Steve and I, Carol announced:

It’s Wear it Pink Day – are you going to wear something pink?

Carol had been aware of the impending Wear it Pink Day prior to our trip to Guernsey and had packed accordingly. Wonderful! The pink ribbon symbol together with the campaign to increase awareness of breast cancer have been staggeringly successful.

There is something of a stark contrast, IMHO, concerning the awareness of prostate cancer.  Upon our return from Guernsey and as someone with a recently established vested interest, I did a swift Internet search (where would we be without it?) and came up with this:

November is Movember – grow a Mo for prostate cancer.

Yes, there is an prostate cancer awareness campaign, though I had not been aware of the awareness campaign. It seems much more low-key than the campaign to increase awareness of breast cancer and, good grief, it’s hardly a catchy tagline, is it? It was certainly entirely new to me though I must admit I am far from a regular reader of newspapers. According to Wikipedia, the Movember campaign began in the Antipodes in 2004 and was launched over here in 2007, so it’s still relatively new, I guess. The Mo in question is a moustache, the idea being that supporters of the cause should grow a moustache in November to demonstrate their support for prostate cancer awareness. Not the sort of thing one can do at the drop of a hat, is it? Neither, given the relatively frequent occurrence of moustaches within the male community as a whole, is growing a moustache a particularly noticeable act. Men, such as myself, who already sport moustaches are encouraged to shave them off, I believe. Either way, messing around with the hirsuteness of one’s top lip would be noticeable only to those who are familiar with one. It certainly isn’t something that’s as universally noticeable as displaying a pink ribbon which is obvious to both acquaintances and complete strangers alike.

Personally, even though coloured ribbons have become somewhat clichéd due to the success of the breast cancer campaign, I’d prefer something more overtly obvious along these lines:

November is Mauvember – wear a mauve ribbon for someone’s prostate.

Be that as it may, November is Movember seems to be the official prostate cancer awareness campaign and richly deserves to be supported so I’m not about to start a Mauvember splinter group. 😉

Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in males. Every year in the UK some 36,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. This year that’s me plus about 35,999 others sharing the same boat. Even though it may make me look a little younger (nah!), I don’t plan to shave off my moustache for the relatively few people who would notice. However, since I will now be waiting throughout Movember November for a hospital admission on 1st December, I will certainly write anything that seems relevant about my thoughts and experiences in the hope that I may reach a wider audience than would my moustache in an attempt to help with the awareness of prostate cancer.

It may not be as striking as the Wear it Pink website but here is the Prostate Cancer Charity website containing a whole bunch of information.