A Shout Out for Men’s Health on Mother’s Day
A Shout Out for Men’s Health on Mother’s Day
First, Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there. Forgive me for “hijacking” your day, but I need to make an important public service announcement.
If you live in one of 1,000 cities in the world — ranging from Austin to Zagreb — you’re likely to see a spectacle a week from today: dozens, maybe hundreds, of people dressed in tweed and other distinguished attire tooling around on motorcycles.
It’s not Rolling Thunder (although that’s coming up soon) or some sort of bike week event. It’s the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride.
If you aren’t familiar with it, which not enough people are (unfortunately), it’s an annual global fundraising and awareness event for Movember. Unfortunately, not a lot of people — certainly in the United States, at least — are familiar with Movember, but you should be.
Movember is the largest international nonprofit supporting men’s health. Movember funds prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health/suicide prevention programs, and has raised more than $1 billion for those causes in the two decades the organization has been active.
Here’s Movember in its own words:
Men’s health is in crisis. Men are dying on average 4.5 years earlier than women, and for largely preventable reasons.
A growing number of men – around 10.8M globally – are facing life with a prostate cancer diagnosis. Globally, testicular cancer is the most common cancer among young men. And across the world, one man dies by suicide every minute of every day, with males accounting for 69% of all suicides.…
We’re doing what others can’t. We unite experts from around the world to collaborate on projects that will fundamentally change the way men in need are treated and supported. To ensure our impact is significant, far-reaching and long-lasting, we prioritise funding for the three biggest health issues facing men: mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer.
…
We use funding to impact men’s health both locally and globally. We invest in country- and culture-specific health projects while collaborating on game-changing solutions that address the men’s health crisis on a global scale. We share what we learn and report thoroughly on every initiative we fund. We hold ourselves accountable, measuring success along the way to ensure we’re always learning and improving.
I have been participating in the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride since 2018. I got involved because of my family history of prostate cancer. Since then, I can think of at least eight men I know who have been treated (successfully) for prostate cancer.
During that time, Movember added mental health to its causes, and that has become my focus in recent years, as I have detailed in my book and testimonials I have done for Movember.
What has surprised and disappointed me since I have been involved with Movember is how difficult it is to get attention for men’s health. Each year, I do media outreach to get press coverage of the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride — which is made for visual and audio media — and the response has been crickets.
Two years ago in Boston I did an interview with a WBZ radio program, and last year one of the Washington, D.C., TV stations posted some photos online I sent them after the ride. That’s the extent of the media coverage I have been able to generate — as a journalist with a lot of friends in the business I have reached out to about this.
It shows how far we have to go to get people to take men’s cancers and mental health more seriously. This year I reached out to members of Congress who have survived prostate cancer and who have experienced mental health struggles. I reached out to the House Men’s Health Caucus to invite members to attend the event next weekend to speak or to do some social media promotion.
Nothing.
You might remember back in December and January the controversy around Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s prostate cancer treatment and how he played it so close to the vest he didn’t inform the White House prior to his surgery. That’s an example of a big part of the problem: men are still uncomfortable talking openly about their health. Austin later called his attempt to keep things quiet a “missed opportunity” to set an example and provide leadership when prostate cancer affects one in six black men compare to one in eight for men as a whole.
It’s such a stark difference from women. Think about how many famous/high profile women have shared their battles with cancer to raise awareness and motivate women to get screened and take steps to reduce their cancer risks. Think about how many women turn out for breast cancer walks and runs: you can picture the sea of pink shirts.
While some famous men have discussed their prostate cancer and become advocates for awareness/screening such as Al Roker and Ben Stiller, they are the exception rather than the rule. More men need to open up about their experiences and normalize discussions about physical and mental health. That’s all the more reason I’m disappointed none of the members of Congress I reached out to about the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride responded — granted it’s likely their staffers never relayed my emails, but that’s a symptom of the problem.
In the meantime, I will continue to support Movember and participate in events like the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride to help raise awareness and funds. Please join me in this cause.
If you have a vintage, modern classic, café racer, bobber, or scrambler motorcycle in particular, register and ride next week. If you can’t join the ride, please make a donation here.
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Now, in the better late than never category, Kirkus Reviews finally did a write up of my book, calling it “a poignant, gritty memoir of a disillusioned reporter.”
After you make your donation for the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, pick up a(nother) copy of my book, Passport Stamps, which is a call to action for better mental health education and treatment for journalists and civilians who work in conflict zones.
And once again, Happy Mother’s Day!