A Sutherland Shire hero has raised $12,000 in a motorcycle ride for men’s health research, coinciding with Movember this month.
Paul Degan was one of 50,000 riders over 500 cities worldwide riding a vintage motorcycle for the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride.
“I decided to do the ride as since my wife died from breast cancer 10 years ago. I haven’t been involved in any charity work to raise money or awareness and I felt it was time,” Mr Degan said.
Setting out to raise $1000, Mr Degan was blown away to reach his goal in the first week.
“It’s very humbling to realise I have so many friends that care enough for the charity and myself,” he said.
“The number of people that donated to my page was one of the highest in the world and I was the seventh highest amount of money raised.”
The Ride’s Sydney manager, Stephen Broholm said the event is designed to raise both awareness and funds for prostate cancer and suicide prevention.
“We are reminding men to wake up,” he said.
“Men simply aren’t as good as taking care of themselves compared to women. There are men in everyone’s lives, and there is not a strong enough representation of men’s health charities.”
The Ride is unique, with its niche element requiring riders to dress in a certain way and use a classic or vintage style bike.
“This is to keep the Ride interesting and manageable in size, as in doing do, we keep the Ride limited to 750 to 2000 bikes in Sydney alone,” Mr Broholm said.
This is the first year the Ride has aligned with the Movember Foundation with 90 per cent of funds going towards prostate cancer research through the Foundation, and 10 per cent allocated to male suicide prevention.
Mr Degan said he hoped his funds will contribute to eliminate men dying from prostate cancer by finding a cure, and encouraged others to participate in the cause.
“You get one shot at this life so grab it by the balls (so to speak) and if you are fortunate enough to be able to give back, then do so,” he said.
“Ask yourself as you get older, did I leave more here than I came with? If the answer is yes, then you helped and are part of the solution, not the problem.”
Behind the Mo: #WhyWeMo
Since 2003, November is the month where men grow their moustaches to signal their support for men’s health. Raising awareness for prostate cancer, testicular cancer, suicide prevention or men’s health generally, each mo has a reason.
However losing a family member to cancer, Jay Sulway knows how devastating it can be.