For the sixth year, Department of Radiology “Team X-Rayted” was a heavy contender in UNC Health Care’s
6th annual MOVEMBER fundraising drive. X-Rayted finished strong in 2017, raising $4200+ in support of Movember Foundation’s initiatives addressing men’s health challenges faced worldwide.
Once the calendar read Movember 1st, team members began enlisting donations. Many then opted to take on the Movember challenge – shave down and grow a MO for the month. Produce a fine-lookin’ Fu Manchu, a handsome Handlebar, or perhaps a devious Dali. Whether MO-growing or not, Team X-Rayted’s band of supporters joined the 30-day worldwide campaign that seeks to advance men’s health initiatives and research related to prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health.
As a four-year Movember participant, Dr. Bob Dixon commended the 2017 efforts of Team “X-Rayted”: “Our team continues to grow with trainees, faculty and alumni all recruiting friends, families, colleagues and local businesses to contribute to this worthy cause. It also builds a sense of team spirit and comradery that extends across multiple departments each year.”
Team “X-Rayted” was part of a larger UNC Health Care contingent of residents, fellows, nurses, technologists, faculty, administrators, even trainee alumni, from Interventional Radiology, Urology and
Vascular Surgery and Radiation Oncology who participated in Movember. Across UNC Health Care, participants raised a commendable $11.7K+ in 2017, not including proceeds donated by local restaurants.
Fundraising has come a long way since a handful of Department of Urology faculty and staff organized UNC’s first Movember team in 2012, raising $3K in UNC’s inaugural participant year. By 2013, the MO movement had grown to 50 MO growers who raised almost $12K just a year later. When the 2014 MO-growing season ended, over $42K had been raised.
Spreading word of Movember across the UNC Health Care community and beyond has been key to awareness and fundraising. With core support in the healthcare community, MO growers are often sighted campus classrooms, exam rooms, board rooms, operating rooms and dorm rooms, even on (consenting!) patients’ faces.
The Movember Foundation has funded multiple prostate cancer projects since 2014 across its consortium of 15 US institutions, including UNC. Dr. Ron Chen, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, is the UNC PI and also part of the Movember USA’s leadership team. Others, including Dr. Matt Nielsen and Mary Dunn of Urology, are also involved. UNC is funded to participate in several of these projects, including incorporating decision aids to help prostate cancer patients make a treatment decision, an educational intervention to help patients with sexual function recovery after treatment, and using survivorship care plan and navigation services to help patients receive the necessary post-treatment medical care and support.
As Chen noted: “Movember continues to fund these important efforts which help patients from the time of diagnosis and decision-making through post-treatment survivorship. The money that UNC raises not only helps men across the US, but has directly come back to UNC in the form of grant funding for these projects.”