Movember is a moustache-themed charity that’s committed to changing the face of men’s health. It sounds ridiculous – and, in a sense, it is – but it has now raised more than $AUD 1 billion for projects that tackle prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men’s mental health.
The idea is simple: you grow a moustache for the month of Movember and have people sponsor you to do so. It turns out a lot of people must secretly want to grow a moustache, as more than six million have now taken part in the movement.
I first worked at Movember in Melbourne, Australia, where the movement was born. I was an undergrad student back then and helped out in the operations team during the 2010 campaign. The following year, Movember opened a UK headquarters for the first time and I decided to move over there to become a founding member of the Movember UK team.
The knee of the curve: Movemeber took off globally in 2011.
2011 was the year that Movember went truly global, with a near 100% increase on 2010 numbers for both participants and funds raised. Movember UK was central to that spike. We had more than 250,000 participants who, together, raised more than £20 million for the cause.
I was charged with spearheading the operations team in London. Together, we served as the frontline for the campaign, responsible for everything from managing the website to answering the phones to coordinating events. It was, in a word, hectic. But it was also one of the most exciting and enjoyable things I‘ve done, and I‘m proud to have played a small role in the growth of the movement.