There are many reasons one might grow a mo. It might be because they think they look better with facial hair or they might do it to annoy their significant other, but during the month of November, there is a much more meaningful reason.

For almost twenty years, the Movember Foundation has given people a reason to grow a mo to help make a change in men’s health. Movember is a global men’s health organisation who helps fund projects across the world to help raise awareness and combat mental health, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer.

This Movember, more than 100 people across Downer have signed up to help raise awareness and promote Movember, documenting their mo or fitness journey and receiving support and donations which go toward funding health projects.

One active participant for Movember is Eammon Manson, a Finance Analyst who sits in the Investor Relations and Strategic Planning Team.

This is Eammon’s fourth year participating in Movember and along with growing a mo, he set out to run over 60kms during the month in recognition of the 60 men we lose to suicide every hour of every day across the globe. He has well and truly surpassed that goal, currently sitting at 150km.

He describes himself as a “simple guy” with a love of food, sport and banter. Having played multiple sports in his life, soccer and basketball are where his skills lie.

Eammon grew up in the Northern suburbs of Sydney with his tight knit family. Despite he and his siblings all living out of home, they still make an effort to visit their family home, either for a Sunday roast or to visit their rescue cat, Hendricks.

It is this kind of support that Eammon is fortunate to have. He says “when we see people we know and care about being vulnerable and seeking help, it tends to alter our own perceptions – there’s safety in numbers. From personal experience, it was only after talking to a friend that I actually thought about and did talk to a psychologist to help me work through some problems. By taking personal action you can have a big impact on those around you.”

When asked about why he is so passionate about Movember, he explains, it is “great to have an organisation that really brings the issue of men’s health to the forefront and invests time and money into these programs”. He believes by raising awareness on these issues, the organisation and its motivations can help make a difference in people’s lives.

There are expectations that men need to be tough, dependable, logical and unemotional, and these stereotypes are unfortunately still ingrained across many areas of society. This can cause barriers and lead to men being hesitant to seek help when they need it.

“I think this leads to a lot of men instinctively internalising a lot of issues and trying to figure it out on their own” Eammon says. “Normalising these experiences is so important and Movember does a great job in sharing people’s personal stories to a wider audience”.

Movember has helped Eammon become more reflective of his own personal experiences. It’s not something he would naturally do, but since participating in Movember, it has helped him grow and become a better person.

When first doing Movember in 2019, Eammon didn’t want to be ‘that guy’ that didn’t try make an impact. This sparked the incentive to go on a fundraising drive and have some fun, ultimately letting people shave his head to reach his end goal.

After this, he reflected upon why he was participating in Movember and wanted to make a difference. He felt that if people were going to donate their money, he wanted to make sure it meant something. He explains that this self-reflection was “terrifying”, as he realised he did not like opening up and being vulnerable with others and accepting help. Growing a mo the following year was his commitment to better himself, push himself out of his comfort zone and become more self-aware.

If he felt like he was falling back into old habits of not speaking out, he took the opportunity to speak to a professional to better understand himself and his feelings which is something he “never would have considered before because I just figured I didn’t need to and I could deal with it myself”.

Eammon feels that the journey he has been on with Movember has helped him better his own life and hopefully impact others, feeling he has grown as a person and learned valuable lessons along the way.