Where does your Movember moustache money for men’s health go?
Posted November 7, 2022 12:42 pm.
Last Updated November 7, 2022 12:47 pm.
Almost seven million Mo Bros and Mo Sisters have signed up since 2003 to raise money for men’s health, but where does all that moustache-growing money go?
About a week into the annual fundraiser for prostate cancer and men’s health initiatives, Dr. Mike Fraser, the director of cancer program implementation for Movember, told CityNews the fundraiser has invested more than $100 million into prostate cancer research in Canada since 2007.
“We’ve seen huge investments in not just in basic science, the sort of traditional petri-dish test-tube-type science to understand the basic biology of the disease, but also in translational science, where you’re taking those lessons learned in the lab and looking for how they apply to patients and patient materials,” he said.
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Fraser says initially in the fundraiser’s life, money was used to look at the basic science of prostate cancer and lessons learned in the lab. Now, it’s about filling gaps in the research.
“First is around the issue of equity and diversity in prostate cancer research, and in prostate cancer in general, we know that men from African [and] Caribbean backgrounds have a disproportionately high incidence of prostate cancer and they tend to have poor outcomes from prostate cancer. And so one of the major goals is to fund research into that.”
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But it’s not just the outcome of the research that Movember is looking at, either. It’s who’s doing the important work.
“[We] identified that women researchers are underfunded relative to men, and really need to be encouraged to get into prostate cancer research and drive some of the new exciting aspects of the research,” Fraser said.
This year is the 16th annual Movember campaign. More than 60,000 Canadians participated last year alone, raising nearly $25 million.
