Prostate cancer fundraiser gains ‘Mo-mentum’

Ewan Dunderdale thought that at 36-years-old he would be able to grow a decent moustache. He was wrong.

After an entire month of not shaving, the wispy hairs covered his face in a pre-pubescent sort of way.
Fortunately, the foundation for which he was raising money by not shaving his face had no requirements on quality of moustache and Dunderdale managed to raise $8,000 last year for prostate cancer research.

“I personally raised more money than any other individual in Canada,” Dunderdale said. “As a team, we raised $33,000, and were first in Canada.”

Last year, the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada (PCRF) launched Movember Month in hopes to raise awareness and money. “Mo” is slang for moustache in Australia, from where this concept originated.
During Movember Month, PCRF encourages participants – Mo Bros – to stop shaving their faces and get sponsors to donate money for this sacrifice.

Dunderdale said that, because he works for a large company, he wasn’t sure if the moustache would be professional.

“But our president had a moustache at the time and he thought it was a great idea; a good team building exercise,” Dunderdale said.

Dunderdale managed to recruit 33 Mo Bros within all levels of his organization. “It ended up being really fun and kind of humiliating at the same time. It’s hard to take each other seriously with funny moustaches,” Dunderdale said.

But funny moustaches didn’t deter them from sending out weekly e-mails and photos to everyone they knew, asking for donations.

“A lot of donations were small – $25 or $50 dollars,” Dunderdale said. “One guy got $1,000.”
Dunderdale said that a major part of Movember Month is to raise money. “But the ultimate goal is to get the word out that men need to stay on top of their health,” he said.

Dunderdale’s grandfather, Harold Moss, developed prostate cancer late in life. “By the time he found out, it was too late to do anything,” Dunderdale said. “You really want to catch it early because if you are proactive you have a much better chance of treating it.”

Dunderdale’s grandfather has since passed, which only pushed Dunderdale to participate again this year.
“It’s really gained ‘Mo’-mentum this year,” he said. “We have more people this year and my company’s in 12th place in Canada.”

The goal for Movember Month 2008 is to raise $1 million, breaking last year’s record of $500,000.
At the end of November participants and sponsors attend a gala.

“I won a door prize at last year’s gala to this medical clinic called Med Can,” Dunderdale said.

“It’s for people who have tons of money and want to go have a really thorough health exam. The typical one you would receive from your doctor lasts about 30 minutes, but I went in for five hours.

“I know exactly what shape I’m in, and that feels really good, once I got over the shock of it all,” he said.
For more information on Movember Month, visit http://www.movember.com/. To see how you can donate to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada, or to ask questions about prostate cancer, visit http://www.prostatecancer.ca/english/home/ .