Patapsco Teachers Grow Moustaches To Help Combat Men's Cancer
These men are participating in Movember, an international campaign that raises money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation as well as LIVESTRONG, The Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Patapsco teachers and faculty are participating in Movember, an international campaign to raise money and awareness for prostate and testicular cancer research.
The rules are simple: these men started with a clean shaven face on Nov. 1, and they are spending the rest of November growing their whiskers. Goatees and beards don't count, only true moustaches.
“This month we are taking the opportunity to get the message out to all of our young men that their health is important, like we do in October for breast cancer awareness.” said Patapsco principal Ryan Imbriale.
The school is taking advantage of modern teaching technology to deliver their message, using their website to promote the campaign and raise money. They are also using the scroll, a daily announcement feed that runs all day on televisions in every classroom to give a Movember male health fact and an updated picture of one of the participants.
“The students get a laugh out of the pictures,” said Imbriale. “Frankly, some of us look pretty ridiculous.”
According to the Movember website 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime as opposed to 1 in 3 women and evidence suggests that about a third of cancer caused deaths are related to preventable conditions such as obesity, poor nutrition and smoking.
The campaign feels that the reasons for the poor state of men’s health is primarily due to a lack of awareness and reluctance of men to speak about their health issues.
Men are less likely to schedule doctors’ appointments when they feel ill or go for an annual physical, denying themselves the chance of early detection and effective treatment of common diseases, according to the campaign.
To date, Patapsco has raised over $1,200 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
LIVESTRONG, The Lance Armstrong Foundation, is also a recipient of donations. To donate, contact the school at 410-887-7060.
Stuart Strick
7:05 am on Monday, November 14, 2011
to help combat men's cancer research??? Are you sure that's how you wanted to title this?
Greg Stotler
8:33 am on Monday, November 14, 2011
Stuart, sorry for the typo. Thanks for pointing it out. What do you think keeps men from getting regular physicals?
DMalone
8:24 am on Monday, November 14, 2011
Good to see these teachers and faculty are taking strides towards awareness. Go Ryan, Ryan, Chris, and all of the faculty at Patapsco
Greg Stotler
8:35 am on Monday, November 14, 2011
DMalone, do you have a student in Patapsco? What do you think are the most important men's health issues?
DMalone
9:05 am on Monday, November 14, 2011
Don't have a student at Patapsco. But I think awareness is the biggest thing. It is great that these teachers are making it fun for the students and using something that will grab their attention.
Cathy Simpson
9:22 am on Monday, November 14, 2011
What a great way to raise money and awareness! Very clever!
Greg Stotler
9:24 am on Monday, November 14, 2011
Cathy, I will post follow up pictures as the staff continues to grow their moustaches.
Buzz Beeler
9:27 am on Monday, November 14, 2011
I had my bout with it in 84 and I'm still here. The sad part is the older you get, the more friends you find out are dealing with it. The important issue along with the money aspect is to have regular checkups and catch it early.
Greg Stotler
9:39 pm on Monday, November 14, 2011
The Movember website says."Find a doctor and make a yearly appointment each Movember for a general health check. Getting annual checkups, preventative screening tests, and immunizations are among the most important things you can do to stay healthy."
DMalone
10:40 am on Monday, November 14, 2011
Would love to see follow-up pics and Im sure the students will enjoy seeing how the staches progress.
Buzz, hopefully this awareness that the faculty is creating will help as a reminder for regular checkups.
Stuart Strick
10:47 am on Monday, November 14, 2011
To answer your question I would give the following reasons/excuses: location of the gland, no pain-no problem, it's the other guy-not me, illusion of invincibility and simple hardheadedness. Nobody wants to hear about incontinence or impotence. I think as men we would rather hope that if we ignore it it will go away. Sadly, it's just the opposite. I applaude the school for getting the message to the boys early in their lives.
Greg Stotler
10:54 am on Monday, November 14, 2011
Thanks for the input, Stuart. I agree that I have had an illusion of invincibility and simple hardheadedness in my life.
Cathy Simpson
12:22 pm on Monday, November 14, 2011
I can not wait to see the follow up pics! What a hoot!
Buzz Beeler
3:36 pm on Monday, November 14, 2011
DMalone, at the time of my cancer it was in the news as the major killer of young men because of misdiagnoses. I had gone to my family doctor with the symptoms just as the news was coming out. Unfortunately he misdiagnosed my symptoms.
When they did not clear up after taking the doctor's prescribed medicine, I went back to him and again he told me that in a couple of weeks I would feel better. After the third time I went to him and all of the publicity about this type of cancer he realized his mistake.
The only thing that saved me was the type of tumor I had. It was a slow growing tumor and it did not spread as rapidly as other types.
Gradually family doctors were alerted by the publicity of the many deaths, to be cautious in their screening for this disease.
DMalone
10:36 am on Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Buzz, I am so sorry to hear you had to go through this. Glad to hear it was slow growing and your doctor was able to eventually diagnose properly, although I am sure that doesn't make the battle any easier. Do you think there are still a lot of patients misdiagnosed with this? You mentioned that your battle started in '84, so I am wondering if the awareness has grown since then and more patients are properly diagnosed right away to get treatment underway?
Buzz Beeler
11:42 am on Tuesday, November 15, 2011
DMalone, the same day of my surgery when I awoke in my room at Hopkins I looked at the Suns headlines and the front page story on this particular cancer.
The news said that the tumor must be discovered in less than two months in order to survive. My tumor had been growing for six months. I'll never forget the words in the article that stated if the cancer was not discovered early "you were living on borrowed time."
The doctor came in and I showed him the headline and he said while that is true, in my case the type of tumor meant I had a chance of survival.
My bout was just at the beginning of the news getting out there and doctors were becoming aware of the numbers of deaths and the necessity of early detection.
Today with early detection the survival rate is vastly improved based on awareness.