The men of Beer’s facial hair raise �1,000 for charity

A group of moustachioed men from Beer helped raise almost �1,000 for charity through the ‘Movember’ campaign.

Martin O’Mahony, headteacher at the village primary school, was spurred on to start raising money by the father of two of his pupils who has a friend with terminal cancer.

So Mr O’Mahony, who has also lost a relative in recent years, and nine other dads and guardians got involved and took part in ‘Movember’.

During November each year the rapidly spreading charity event is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces in the UK and around the world.

The aim of which is to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

Men register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face and then for the rest of the month, groom, trim and wax their moustaches and seek out sponsorship for their efforts.

Last year more than 110,000 people helped raise �10.3m.

The aim is that the men taking part effectively become walking, talking billboards for the entire month, and through their actions and words raise awareness around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

Last Wednesday, on November 30, all of Beer’s hirsute men met at The Anchor Inn to show off their month’s work before going back to being clean-shaven on December 1.

Martin said: “Thanks to your generosity and the generosity of the wider school community we look to have raised in the region of �1000.

“This is double the target we aimed for at start.”

But some had enjoyed their upper-lip accessory more than others during the month, and Martin added after the big shave-off: “It feels great I feel like a new man!”