Reloaded Mag Africa Volume 18 | Page 63

As a society, we are more informed about female related cancer, that is my opinion, and not saying women are not important; but a bit of attention on the male related cancer would be helpful and much appreciated.

Yes, we have Movember in recognition of male cancer, Prostate cancer if I’m correct. The Dare Devil Run in South Africa is created to be a daring way to bring some much needed attention to the dangerous killer that is cancer in men.

Not having done the main Dare Devil Run, a week prior to the run, I had the opportunity to put on my purple speedo and go to SOWETO, Johannesburg with 19 other brave men; in peak morning traffic from the University of Johannesburg SOWETO campus all the way to the taxi rank. This triggered many different reactions from all kinds of people.

Younger People: With younger people it was the same, but different reactions. We saw younger men publicly trying to “prove” their manhood by shouting out messages trying to compare penis sizes. With younger women, they treated us like strippers, telling us to move more, and take off the speedos for a better view. Raising a few uncomfortable moments.

Older People: We saw a large number of older people looking at us with disgust, as if we were doing something immoral, in which we were doing the total opposite, and that is playing our part in sending out a life saving message.

Taxi Drivers: Who many of them hurled insults at us, and calling us crazy and gay, but we expected that from many of them.

In all honesty, not everyone was negative towards the awareness campaign, some were really supportive and encouraging.

My point here is that the Dare Devil Run sends out a message in an extreme way, and we need more of that!!!