Colorado Cancer Patient Raising Funds This 'Movember' By Growing Mustache
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) - "Without a doubt Sam Elliot has the greatest mustache," said Ken Smith of Fort Collins.
Smith is growing a mustache for Movember.
"It sounds kind of weird, but with a fun focus you can talk about serious issues."
Movember is an Australian based organization started in 2003 to raise awareness for men's health issues like prostate and testicular cancer and mental health.
Today it has grown to include 21 countries and raised $500 million. The organization asks men to start out clean shaven and grow a mustache for the 30 days of the month of November and collect donations.
"86 percent of their funds go to prostate cancer research," said Smith.
He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010. Surgery put him in remission for more than a year, but now the cancer is back.
"I currently have what's called recurrent prostate cancer," he said.
This is Smith's second year participating in Movember. Last year his horseshoe mustache helped he and his team raise about $15,000.
"As of today I have 13 teams and 109 people," Smith said.
For him he just hopes through the humor and fun of mustaches, it gets men talking about issues they otherwise may not.
"Testicular cancer is the number one cancer in young men ages 17-35," Smith continued. "Get the tests, get the PSA tests, get the DRE tests, then maybe you won't ... result in some of the things I've gone through."
LINK: us.movember.com | Ken's Team Page
