Patapsco Teachers Grow Moustaches To Help Combat Men's Cancer

 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.