By Jason White
November, the month where men grow their moustaches out in order to raise money and awareness for the Movember foundation, however, over a recent number of years, ‘Mo Sistas,’ have been getting involved in the cause.
‘Mo Sistas’ have been more involved in raising money this year with the University of Stirling supporting their means.
The University has encouraged all sports teams to take part in the ‘Move for Movember’ challenge which sees each member move 60km in a month to raise money for the cause, a challenge which has made women realise they can do more to ‘get involved and support the men in their life’ said Alex Dixon, Secretary for the Women’s Gaelic team.
“I think the introduction of the Move for Movember has been a massive thing because most women can’t grow facial hair so they are cut out from the whole thing, I’ve got quite a lot of female friends to get involved with it just even by talking about it and spreading awareness because I think it’s really important for women to show support for men with this issue.”
Leah Syme, Club President for Netball at the University, agreed with this and thinks now is the time for Movember to be more inclusive to ‘support all the men we care about.’
“We all have men in our life’s and obviously it isn’t effecting us directly it is raising awareness for men but it is such a great thing as I do think men struggle to open up and they don’t talk as much compared to females.
Every year men grow their best moustache for Movember.- Source: Movember.com
However, Leah does think more needs to be done for women to get behind the cause and doesn’t think ‘Move for Movember’ is enough.
“Move for Movember is not distinctive enough, men can do it as well so there should be something that a female can do to support the cause.
I think there should be a female equivalent to growing a moustache, so it’s like if we do this then you do this, a possibility is cutting hair or a message like that by advertising it months in advance and then grow your hair out before getting it cut.”
‘Move for Movember’ isn’t the only thing being done to raise money for Movember as most sports clubs have taken to growing out a moustache in order to raise awareness.
One team is Blaze Ultimate Frisbee and Captain Charlie Cooper believes the cause is massively important in order to raise awareness and thinks spreading events through the month will help raise more money.
Blaze Captain Charlie Cooper before his Movember attempt and during it.- Source: Charlie Cooper
“It’s massively important as both men and women can have mental health problems so removing that stereotype of men always having to be strong helps as men are more likely to seek help.”
The Movember movement is a global charity that focuses on the three main killers of young men, testicular cancer, prostate cancer and mental health issues by encouraging them to speak out about their issues and seek help.
It has raised over £400millon since its foundation in 2003 and funds over 1250 projects across 20 countries.
The University of Stirling finished in the top 10 among the UK Universities in terms of money raised in 2018 and have currently raised over £9000 this year.