The Movember Challenge runs throughout the month of November each year. It is a challenge in which people grow out their moustache for the whole month in support of men’s mental health, testicular and prostate cancer. Movember has funded over 1250 projects focussed on improving men’s health since it was founded in 2003.
It is a charity that is relevant to the whole Eton community, with good mental health being particularly important to maintain in a – sometimes stressful – school environment. Furthermore, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in the UK and globally more than 1.4 million men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year.
This is why I believe that it is extremely important for us at Eton to not only raise funds for this cause, but more crucially to spread awareness of the hidden struggles that we may face and to try and encourage people to speak out.
For the past few years, I have run the Movember Challenge at Eton College, growing it each year since 2021, with increasing success. This year, the fundraiser has been the biggest yet, with over 50 boys from Year 12 and Year 13 participating. Each boy has been tasked to raise a minimum of £100, but many have chosen to go above and beyond, some doubling or even tripling that target.
Therefore, I invited Katy Martins, Community Fundraising Executive at Movember UK, to Eton to run a stall with me on St Andrew’s Day. With the help of Mr Grenier and Mrs Slaney we were able to secure the perfect position to attract attention and Katy was kind enough to bring in some Movember branded merchandise for us to sell, with all proceeds being donated to the Eton College Movember fundraising page.
Within no time, the first parents started arriving and School Yard was bustling. Our main objective was to try and raise as much awareness of the cause as possible and spread the message of what Movember stood for. It was fantastic to have Katy Martins representing the charity, to really connect with the parents, boys and staff and help them to understand how pertinent and unique Movember’s work is to our community.
Some of the boys participating in the Movember Challenge were also out and about, talking to parents about our efforts, as well as collecting donations. It was an amazing day for the school fundraiser, not only in the accumulation of donations, but because we were able to inform as many people as possible about the silent struggles that many men and boys may face.
On St Andrews Day, we were able to raise a phenomenal £1,092 and across all our fundraising platforms as a school we have raised over £10,000! We would like to thank everyone who have supported the cause so far. It has been an unbelievable fundraising campaign and we have a week to go!
If you haven’t donated yet but would like to support this extremely important cause please do so here. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us so far!
