Things are going to get pretty hairy at the Whitehorse Fire Department this month.

Over the next 30 days, local firefighters will be growing their facial hair.

Why? Because November has been unilaterally renamed Movember. And it has been elevated from the status of merely being the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, to a month to promote men's health ... and moustaches.

"Our moustaches become sort of a ribbon in our trucks," organizer Brian Fedoriak explained this week.

"Guys don't always want to talk about their health, so this is a good way to raise people's awareness."

And more awareness is needed. According to the Movember website, men are 30 per cent more likely than women to get cancer, and 55 per cent more likely to die from it.

The campaign focuses on prostate and testicular cancer, two types of cancer that often go undiagnosed until they are quite advanced.

"I think in general it's something that men tend to shy away from," said Bernice Couto, an organizer with Movember Canada.

"Specifically for prostate cancer, it can be intimidating or scary to have a prostate exam. Men are dying unnecessarily all over the world because of it," Couto said.

In Canada alone, prostate cancer kills 4,300 men every year, more than any other type of the disease. And it is estimated it will affect one Canadian man in seven within his lifetime.

"It's not an old man's disease anymore," Fedoriak said, and he's right.

Testicular cancer most often attacks men between the ages of 18 to 35, and can occur in boys as young as 15. The most common symptom is a painless lump in either testicle, something many men, according to the statistics, don't recognize as a bad sign.

But the people at Movember, with the help of our local firefighters, are hoping to change all that.

"We want to get the curiousity going," Fedoriak said.

He and his fellow firefighters hope to dispell some of the embarrassment surrounding testicular and prostate cancer by talking openly about the disease.

"One of our members was affected by prostate cancer last year," he says. "He survived and we want other men affected to survive, too."

On top of raising awareness, the Whitehorse Fire Department is raising funds for cancer research. Firefighters will be in uniform canvassing for donations throughout the city, on the streets, in stores and offices.

There will also be a donations drop-box at Station One on Second Avenue. They will be part of the Canadian effort to reach a $1-million goal.

Fedoriak said he hopes that in addition to money and awareness, the firefighters want to raise the bar for community involvement.

"Anybody can get on board with this not just firefighters, and not just men," he said.

But it's men like Fedoriak whose upper lips will be leading the charge, and he already has his strategy down.

"It's all about shaping from now until the end of the month," he says.