A Kiwi act for cancer awareness
A close look at the faces of New Zealand hockey players and you will notice something unique --- almost all of them have kept a moustache.
For them, it’s symbolic of something very close to their hearts --- a movement to raise awareness about men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer and suicide, among others.
The players will shave off their moustaches only on December 1, since they raise awareness about men’s health issues for the whole of November every year.
And, they’ve coined a term for it, “Movember”, which literally is a portmanteau of the words ‘moustache’ and ‘November’,
GROWING MOVEMENT The movement has gathered pace in the last few years. Their tall skipper, Blair Tarrant, is seen flaunting a blonde whisker. “Is it looking nice?” he asks.
Jared Panchia, an Indian-origin Black Sticks midfielder said, they unanimously decided to support the cause by growing moustaches but will shave them off on the first day December.
“Yeah, we decided to grow our moustaches to support the Movember movement. Each one of us has kept a moustache for the month of November,” said Panchia, whose brother Arun is the vice-captain of the team.
“It’s for a noble cause, so we did not think twice. It’s quite popular in New Zealand and people keep moustaches of weird shapes and sizes but we are keeping just normal ones,” he added.
Several competitions such as ‘Moscars’ and ‘International Man of Movember’ have also been organised around the world in the last decade in attempts to popularise the movement. The Movember Foundation is a multinational charity which supports the cause and organises these competitions.
BHUBANESWAR:
SUPPORT FROM THE CRICKET WORLD
New Zealand cricketers have often been seen in the past sporting moustaches in support of the Movember movement.
Last year, Kane Williamson, Matt Henry and Lockie Ferguson were among Kiwi stars to keep their facial hair unshaved in the month of November.
Former Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds and India’s Shikhar Dhawan and Ravindra Jadeja have also supported the movement.