A Hairy response to a good cause

PRESS RELEASE

A Hairy response to a good cause

Staff from across the city's college are proving that it's not just the students that know how to fundraise for a worthy cause as they count the donations for Movember – and raise awareness for men's health at the same time.

Staff from Construction, Engineering, Automotive and Maths and Science faculties have been sprouting moustaches for the past month with competitions for the best moustache raising the pressure on the teams.

“Whilst this has been a fun thing to do it obviously has a very serious side.” said Chris Whittaker, Head of Construction, “We're very proud that the college gained its Healthy FE Colleges status earlier in the year and we have used the national Movember campaign to spearhead a tutorial programme with our students to raise awareness of men's health and prostate cancer in particular. The staff teams have gone from clean-shaven to moustached throughout the month and this has been a really good way to continue to raise the profile and show our commitment with a twist of humour. There has been a certain amount of teasing since some of the team have been more successful than others.”

Raising over £1,000 across the college, the funds will help the two main charities supported by the Movember campaign – The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. The national campaign aims to raise awareness of some worrying facts about men's health in that 1 in 9 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime; this year 37,000 new cases will be diagnosed and 26% of men are less likely to go to the doctor compared to women.