Firefighters raise funds, awareness for men’s health this Movember

David Yin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Stouffville firefighter Sean Tucker recalled when his fire department began celebrating Movember over a decade ago. He said that only one or two crews participated at first before the rest of the department joined in.

“As firefighters, we deal with a lot of pressure, trauma, and long nights, and it can affect us,” he said.

Since then, the department has raised over $19,000 for men’s health. This year, they are aiming for $1,500.

Movember is an annual movement in which people around the world raise funds, increase awareness, and grow their own facial hair throughout November to support men’s health.

Australians Travis Garone and Luke Slattery began Movember in 2003 to raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer. The movement has also supported men’s mental health since 2006.

A 2025 Canadian report by the Movember Institute said that almost 75,000 men died before the age of 75 in 2023, with most deaths being preventable. The leading cause of death was cancer, followed by coronary heart disease, accidents, suicides, and chronic lower respiratory diseases.

Together, these deaths made up around 44 per cent of all male deaths in 2023.

The report said that Canada can reduce cancer and coronary heart disease-related deaths by prioritizing healthcare communication and disease prevention programs.

The report also said that accidents could reflect men’s higher engagement towards risky activities or jobs, as well as accidental opioid overdoses.

Seventy-three per cent of all deaths and 59 per cent of all hospitalizations from opioid poisoning between January and March 2025 were male.

Additionally, men are about three times more likely to die by suicide than women in Canada.

The report said that Canada lost around 78,000 potential years of life among men who died by suicide in 2023. This averages to about 30 years of life lost for every male suicide.

The report added that the three most common factors associated with male suicidality were alcohol or drug dependency, having no spouse, and a depression diagnosis.

The report said that Indigenous men, men of colour, queer men, male veterans, and male convicts tend to face additional health barriers, such as past traumas and discrimination.

Adam Gelinas, founder of First Step Men’s Therapy, said that more needs to be done to protect men’s health.

As for mental health, he said that around 65 per cent of his clients have never spoken to a therapist before.

“In some cases, there is a stigma of people asking for help, especially men,” he said. “It can be seen as a sign of weakness or a sign of needing to be fixed.”

He added that sometimes, a man’s mother or wife would initiate the first session.

“Women typically are more comfortable asking for help,” he said. “There’s less shame around a woman telling her friend she’s in therapy.”

The Movember report said that even when men sought out physical or mental health treatment, 42 per cent said that their healthcare practitioner showed bias against them for being male. It added that young men, gay men, bisexual men, men of colour, and men with a mental health condition were more likely to experience such barriers with healthcare communication and treatment.

“I think it doesn’t matter which group you’re a part of, or if you’re in a marginalized population: We all want to belong,” Gelinas said.

Gelinas advises those struggling with mental health to take small steps towards their own recovery, such as viewing a mental health book, video, or podcast, or booking a free consultation with a therapist.

As for the Stouffville fire department, Tucker said that they will continue to collect donations, with some of them partaking in a fitness challenge later.

“There are some guys that can grow a pretty thick moustache,” he said.

First Step Men’s Therapy is a mental health clinic that provides a wide range of services for men. It runs four offices across Ontario: Markham, Toronto, Ottawa, and Oshawa.

To learn more about either men’s health or Movember, head to https://ca.movember.com.

 

Photo: Firefighters in Stouffville show off their moustaches for Movember. (Photo supplied by Sean Tucker)