By Nicholas Durette
*Trigger warning: mentions of mental health and cancer*
“Mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer – we’re taking them all on.” Since 2003, this has been the motto of “Movember”, the leading charity for men’s health worldwide.
Seventeen years later, the idea of not shaving in November has continued to rise in popularity and has become a recurring event of the end of year season.
Some Laurentian students have advertised their Movember journey on social media and have begun fundraising for the charity.
Jake Ellsworth-Hewson, a second year Sports and Physical Education (SPED) student said, “my family has been impacted by cancer. So ever since that’s sort of happened, I’ve just always tried to participate in anything that’s been related to cancer research or in regards to that.”
To lighten the mood, Ellsworth-Hewson said it was also a nice excuse to give his girlfriend as to why the moustache needed to stay.
Another student, Malek Abou-Rabia, Vice President of Education of the SGA, also shared his story.
“It’s kind of funny. It started really as a sort of competition between me and my high school professors. I was the first person in my class to grow a moustache, so it became like some game,” Abou-Rabia said.
He said he’s continued to speak about the movement past friendly competition.
“I’ve definitely struggled with my own mental health,” Abou-Rabia said.
“I’ve definitely noticed back then that it was really hard to talk about. You don’t even realize that there’s other people that feel this way in general.”
Abou-Rabia and Ellsworth-Hewson have been fundraising since the beginning of November. Both students expressed their experiences with how the pandemic was making it difficult to fundraise.
“It’s kind of hard to ask students to donate when there’s such a financial crisis right now,” Abou-Rabia said.
“But, you know, I couldn’t say no to donating myself. I’m matching every donation that comes in. So, at the end of the month, I’m basically just doubling the number.”
Ellsworth-Hewson also stated that he was fundraising with a goal of around a couple hundred dollars since it was his first time.
“I’ve always known it as the whole cancer piece. Maybe the last couple ones [Movembers], I’ve figured out ‘yeah, it also has that tie into the mental health and suicide prevention for men’… I think now is a more important time than ever…”
“I just feel that people, when they’re suffering from depression and anxiety, there’s no worse feeling than feeling alone and not being able to do anything about that. And then throwing that pandemic in their face with that as another thing to deal with.” Ellsworth-Hewson said.
“It’s something that also does add another level to why we often emphasize more on the mental health piece in November.”
Abou-Rabia also shared his outlook of Movember during the pandemic.
“Loneliness and the need for interaction for everyone is huge. I’m in the office right now, and that’s been really helpful and healthy, just to commute to an office that’s almost empty,” he said.
Abou-Rabia went on to say, it’s essentially an issue with lack of normalcy that’s an additional contributor to the decline in mental health for students during the pandemic.
Josh Sims, a first year SPED student said that he wasn’t participating in the movement for anyone in particular.
“My dad and his friends did it a lot when I was growing up, so I always knew what it was for and just decided to do it this year now that I can grow facial hair,” he said.
Some professors also have been taking stressors into the equation and have been more forgiving, Sims points out.
“I find that in a lot of my classes we do talk about mental health. Especially in my Intro to Teaching class, our teacher really makes an effort to help us as much as possible by being very flexible with due dates and also just checking in on us every class,” Sims said.
According to a study done by the University of Toronto, “researchers observed reduced wellness and increased psychological distress among students who had not experienced mental health concerns prior to COVID-19.”
In 2019, stats read that 53% of students felt so depressed it was difficult to function, 69% had experienced overwhelming anxiety, 17% had seriously considered suicide, and 3.1% had actually attempted to take their lives.
Laurentian University offers several options for students seeking support during this stressful time, including counselling 705-673-6506 or 1-800-461-4030 ext: 6506. Students can also receive support by contacting Canada Suicide Prevention Service: 833-456-4566 and the Crisis Text Line: 741-741 (text “start”).