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don’t receive a lot

of attention. From
what Guest can tell,

the majority of the
population aren’t familiar
enough with things like
prostate and testicular
cancer—something

he hopes to change,
one moustachioed
conversation at a time.

“If you catch prostate
cancer early enough, it’s
very manageable. That
moustache starts a lot of
conversations. A lot of
my friends’ dads went
and got checked when
they hadn’t yet because
of the conversations we
had.”

Prostate cancer
usually affects men
around the time they
reach 40, but it’s also
never too soon to get
checked out. Factors like
your family’s medical
history, personal dietary
habits, and even your
environment can all
have an impact on
things like prostate
cancer. Something that
I personally didn’t
know was that prostate
cancer is something
that all men inevitably
develop. The only thing
we can do is make sure
we catch it at an early
enough stage so that it
can be kept on a smaller,
more manageable level.
Testicular cancer occurs
alot less frequently than
prostate, but the same
stigma surrounds it.
“You know, some people

 

 

 

think ‘It’s gross that the

doctor is making sure my

balls don’t have cancer’
but if you think about it,
they also check to make
sure your eyes work
properly. So what’s the
difference?”

Now, don’t get me
wrong—lI fucking hate
cancer. Already in my
life, I’ve lost loved ones
to this shitty disease
and I’ve had to admit to
myself that I’ll probably
lose more in the future;
so the more being done
to find a cure, the better.
But I’ve always been a
bit resentful towards
Movember. To me, the
month has become
increasingly more
obsessed with who can
grow the greasiest train
wreck above their upper
lip and less about men’s
health.

“Sure, some people
may not be taking
the financial aspect of
Movember as seriously,

 

 

 

 

but that’s okay. As long as
they’re raising awareness,
that’s great.” Guest also
defends people who
might not have raised as
much money as others,

with a logical explanation.

“Donations for any cause
are most often due to

an emotional response
from the donor...So if my
friend with no association
with the disease is asking
for money from the same
people that I’m making
cry with my story, he isn’t
going to get donations.
But he is going to help
raise awareness.”

With the growing
success of Movember
though comes more
complications. At the
moment, Movember
is primarily run by
volunteers, but as
the cause grows, the
need for full-time staff
will increase. Guest’s
comparison between
prostate / testicular
cancer and breast cancer

a DD

  

u 1 , 7 1
ae ; *

From left to right: Tristan Power, Scotty Sowinski, Adam Martinson, and Mark Guest

especially caught my
attention, because of how
commercialized the cause
has become. Everywhere
you go, there are pink
ribbons for sale or pink
merchandise supporting
breast cancer—something
that Guest agrees
shouldn’t be the case.
“Companies are just
slapping a pink ribbon on
things and donating only
a fraction of a percentage
while making a killing off
of it. You know, there’s
pink coffeemakers and
stuff like that now and
it’s like ‘No, this disease
is horrible. Don’t make
it into some wonderful,
fairy tale about coffee
machines.’ You try not
to be pessimistic, but at
the same time, you hope
that you don’t see blue
coffeemakers that aren’t
really raising any money
for the cause.” Not all
company involvement
has to be negative though,
considering Guest’s

 

 

employer at the time of
last year’s Movember,
Hudson’s Canadian Tap
House in Edmonton,
made a significant
donation to his team and
are huge supporters of
Movember.

Despite any worries
of commercialization,
Guest is preparing to once
again don a moustache
this month and is thrilled
about how far the cause
has come since he first
got involved. “The nice
thing is that over the last
three years, there’s been
a huge increase in the
amount of guys growing
moustaches. Which
means there’s a lot more
awareness out there. You
don’t get that weird look
anymore; you get that
nod of approval. Most
20-year-olds now know
about Movember and
now it’s just about letting
the older generations
know, because they’re
the ones that need to get
checked.”

Guest’s drive and
motives behind his annual
Movember moustache are
incredibly inspiring, but
Ihave to disagree over
the casual Movemberite
mentality. If you’re going
to grow a moustache and
take part in this amazing
cause, make sure you’re
doing it for all of the right
reasons. Men’s health
advocates have enough
assholes to worry about
without adding your
name to the list.