As Australian men grow their 'staches this Movember, a Collie father and son's growth is extra special this year after a close call with prostate cancer.
Jeff Riley and his son Clint are joining forces in their moustache driven fundraising this year after Jeff was cleared of the deadly cancer less than a month ago.
"I started getting regular health checks after my father died of asbestosis and my doctor said the prostate check was as simple as a blood test these days so why not do it all in one go," Jeff said.
"The PSA count is what determines prostate cancer and my count was always steady but then it spiked so we looked into it and I was able to catch it early and simply deal with a simple surgery rather than years of chemo."
"But because of that uncomfortable stigma around prostate checks not a lot of people are in the same boat as me, they catch it late and have to go through rounds of chemo and it just destroys your body."
While this isn't the duo's first Movember, the recent diagnosis and surgery brought a new renewed passion to the father-son project.
"It's a bit more personal than other time I did it," he said.
"I was one of the lucky ones but there are others that are not so lucky and there's still a lot of work to be done on men's health."
Movember is one of the leading charities changing the face of men's health with a focus on raising awareness and money for prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention.
Each November the charity encourages men to grow out their mustaches to raise awareness and help strike up conversations and fundraisers.
The junior half of the father-son Movember duo, Clint, said while he aims to raise money every year for the past nine years his father's diagnosis brought another aspect of the fundraising for him.
"I was always more focused on the mental health side of things and suicide prevention with my Movember fundraising but then with dad's prostate cancer that changed what I want to bring awareness to," he said.
"For me it was going through the daily hard times and I have friends who have been through similar things and lost people to suicide
"It all comes back to that stubbornness men can have in opening up and the 'she'l be right' attitude for both mental health and prostate checks, but slowly I'm starting to see it change."
To donate to the men's fundraising efforts, people can visit au.movember.com and search Jeff Riley.
