Dodgy taches and lumps

Okay, so it’s November, which means it’s actually Movember and time for the dodgy moustache growing. Which can cause a few funny looks from people 

It’s all in a good cause, raising awareness and funds for the diagnosis and treatment of testicular and prostate cancer (prostate cancer accounted for over 10,000 deaths in 2012, testicular cancer for a further 63), and it’s not just something that happens to old men.  While prostate cancer tends not to appear until men are in their 40s, there are several documented cases of testicular cancer in teenagers and young adults, and there have even been cases in children.

Movember has been very successful in raising the profile of something that’s both life threatening and embarrassing (a bad combination), and it's a great example of the way campaigning can take so many forms.  Basically all 'campaign' means is to fight for a cause, and you can do it in almost any ways you like: writing letters, doing a sponsored event, starting a Facebook group, wearing a ribbon or wristband or sitting in a bath of beans.

The point is that what you do, doesn't really matter, so long as it raises money or awareness (or both) for your cause, you are campaigning.

So what cause to choose? What do you feel passionate about? It's a personal choice.

I chose prostate and testicular cancer because they are life threatening, and people need to know about them, boys and men need to be aware that they could lose their lives to cancer, or possibly survive but lose their testicles or prostate. And that's no laughing matter. Unless it happens to cats.

And it's very easy to guard against these cancers: they can be treated if caught in time, and they can be caught in time, because the symptoms are known. Check out the Movember website for more information on men's health.

The greater the sacrifice, the greater the sense of satisfaction.  So the woman in the bath of beans might feel more proud than the person who just bought a badge.

Movember is a huge sacrifice for me because my facial hair often ends up turning ginger, I run the risk of looking like a bald Keith Lemon, or the Lorax.

Local news

Speaking of cats: funny captions stuck on a picture of a cat is a work of comedy genius.  But tying fireworks to a cat is not. Whoever the Whitehaven resident was who thought it would be funny to physically abuse a cat really needs to man up. It wasn't funny, and it wasn't clever.

It was cruel and sick and they were just lucky the cat got away in time, because they haven't been so lucky in the past; and the problem there is that you turn a lot of neighbours into vigilantes, who would happily cause some physical pain in revenge. 

In 2010 a woman in Coventry received death threats for putting a cat in a wheelie bin, and that cat wasn't even hurt.

Before doing anything potentially hilarious, ask yourself two questions: could anyone get hurt because of this? Could anyone want to hurt me because I did this?  If the answer to either question is yes, it is almost certainly not hilarious...