Many of you are probably pretty familiar with my Testicular Cancer story already. But for those of you that aren't, I was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer on April 13th, 2020, just under a month after my 27th birthday. Two days later, I underwent surgery to remove the tumor. A few months later, I had to start a 9 week cycle of chemotherapy, and follow that up with a major RPLND surgery in February of 2021 to remove some lingering infected lymph nodes. Needless to say, it was a rough 10 months.

But as I sit here on first day of Movember 2023, I am just over 2.5 years cancer-free!

Thankfully, I was unbelievably privileged to have an amazing support system of friends and family through the entire process, and to be working for an outstanding company that gave me all the time off and resources I needed to overcome this obstacle.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the luck that I had through this diagnosis. Some people catch the disease at a later stage, some people have to go through this alone. Others don't have access to health-care and some aren't able to take the time off work to face this thing head on. These are the people that I am running this fundraiser for.

Movember is an AMAZING foundation the raises money and awareness for all aspects of Men's Health. While I am obviously biased towards raising money for Testicular Cancer awareness, they focus on so much more, including raising awareness for Prostate Cancer, Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and Men's Health overall. I mean they are raising money and awareness for just about anything you can think of relating to Men's Health - check out their "Report Cards" page on the website. They have helped fund over 1,250 Health Projects and work with 20 different Men's Health Partners across 20 different countries. Their reach is insane and they are doing SO much for Men's Health across the world!

In 2020, I started this fundraiser 4 weeks into my chemotherapy treatment. I set what I thought was a lofty goal of $2,000, and I was BLOWN AWAY by the generosity of you all. Thanks to your efforts, we more than quintupled my fundraising goal, as we collectively raised over $10,000!! It was amazing!! While I understand that that year was a special circumstance as I was literally going through chemo, I feel that we can rally once again this Movember and reach that year’s total! So let's get to $10,000 raised again this year!

While I know this is lofty goal, I know it's something I can achieve with the support of friends and family like you! PLEASE donate anything that you can, however much, as any amount will help Movember further their charitable outreach. If you can't donate money, or even want to do more, consider growing a mustache or "Move for Movember"! Anything you're able to do will help me reach my goal and help shed some light on the health issues men across the entire world experience on a daily basis!

Thank you and F&@% Cancer!!!

Austin