If you do one thing this week...stay aware of male cancers

It’s the last day of the month formerly known as November. Over the past few years, an alternative “Movember” has been growing, literally, as men sprout moustaches to raise awareness of male cancers – prostate and testicular.

Now many of those upper lips will become less hairy, but as the bristles are shaved off don’t let the message get washed down the sink too.

“We want everyone to know that all men aged over 50 and those over 40 with a family history of prostate cancer are at risk and should be tested annually,” states the Movember Foundation website, movember.com.

“We want men to know that they shouldn’t wait until they are sick to see a doctor. An annual general health check-up will be the best chance for catching things early and preventing complications and side effects.”

In Ireland, men have a one in nine chance of developing prostate cancer during the course of their lifetime, and 2,579 new cases of the cancer were diagnosed here in 2008, according to the Irish Cancer Society, see cancer.ie