President of the Republic supports the Movember movement
Ljubljana, 10.11.2011 | press release
The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, received the representatives of the Movember movement, who by growing their moustaches draw attention to and provide information on male-specific diseases worldwide, highlighting prostate cancer. The members of the Slovenian movement, Movember.si, Dr Martin ©ala, Gri¹a ©oba and Lado Bizovièar, presented the Movember activities to President Türk and called on him to support their efforts.
President Türk advocated removing the taboos surrounding male-specific diseases. As he explained, our traditional culture is rather reserved toward discussing diseases that mainly affect men. He expressed his support for the Movember movement which aims to provide a more relaxed public discussion on health problems, such as prostate cancer, which President Türk himself has faced recently.
The representatives of the Movember.si movement then informed the president of their planned activities. The movement will present itself at a urological conference to be held shortly. Following the example of other larger cities around the world, it intends to organise a major social event with the purpose of breaking taboos about prostate cancer and other male health problems.
President Türk emphasised that at its present level of development Slovenia must do more to assure the early detection of cancer, and cancer prevention wherever possible, and also to provide successful new treatments aimed at preserving quality of life in older ages. Slovenian society is an ageing society, which indicates that its prosperity level has increased. Under such conditions, more attention must be devoted to health problems, a healthy way of life and in particular to the prevention of diseases, added the president.
The name of the Movember movement is a portmanteau of the English slang 'mo' (moustache) and the month of November, during which the members of the movement let their moustaches grow. They begin the month of 'Movember' ( previously known as November) with a cleanly shaven face. For the entire month, they grow their moustaches and during that time they raise awareness and funds for the male-specific diseases. The moustaches increase attention and offer the members of the movement a starting point to speak about prostate cancer. Moustaches in November are becoming a recognised symbol, just as the red ribbon has become a symbol of the fight against the HIV virus.
The Movember movement was conceived in 1999 in Australia, when a group of friends decided to draw attention to men's health issues in a humorous way — by letting their moustaches grow. In the years that followed, Movember has developed into a strong movement worldwide; in 2010, it had 447 800 official members. Last year, it raised more than € 48 million in voluntary funding and donations. The entire amount of the collected funds was allocated to research activities for diseases that mostly affect men.