Movember offered up the opportunity to go head-to-head with other students and staff to see who can grow the best moustache throughout November whilst raising the most money. Every penny raised supports men's mental health and suicide prevention.
Movember offered up the opportunity to go head-to-head with other students and staff to see who can grow the best moustache throughout November whilst raising the most money. Every penny raised supports men's mental health and suicide prevention.
Movember supports men's mental health and suicide prevention, raising vital funds and awareness for prostate and testicular cancer. Since 2003, Movember has funded more than 1,250 men’s health projects around the world, challenging the status quo, shaking up men’s health research and transforming the way health services reach and support men.
Reaching the end of the month means the moustaches have all been shaved off and a huge amount of money has been raised for charity. We wanted to look back at some of the amazing fundraisers student groups have run this past month and share the final total raised. (Spoiler alert- it was our best year yet!)
At Bath, we had 50 SU groups sign up to grow some ‘staches and over 400 students and staff members ran, walked, cycled and burpee’d their way to raising some impressive funds for Movember. Keep your eyes peeled for the highlight video from Campus TV coming soon!
For another year running, the rugby club were heavily involved in Movember and a leading force in the competition. They hosted their annual Movember day, 60-hour cycle, netball v rugby tournament and of course the inaugural Battle for Bath fixture against Bath Spa was resurrected again with Bath taking the win for the second year running!
As a special addition this year, the rugby club partnered with PsychStrength to produce a series of emotional videos packed with honest stories and reflections. The club really put themselves out there for a cause you could tell meant so much to them.
This Movember was the year of endurance events! Alongside rugby’s 60hour-cycle, campus was brought to life in all hours of the night as several endurance events were hosted by a variety of SU groups. The canoe club repeated their success from last year, completing another 24-hour ERG challenge! The rowing club took on a 12-hour ERG challenge and the squash club completed a 60km run on their court (that’s 6,154 laps!). The cricket club then decided to take on not only one, but TWO 24-hour challenges – a 24-hour batting challenge and a 24-hour catching challenge, where they batted and caught over 5,000 balls combined for both events.
The cricket club really pulled out all the stops this year as a group of their members also hiked to the summit of Snowdon in full cricket whites to increase funds! Some other notable events include cheers’ ‘Bring a Boy to Cheer’ session, sailing’s moustache themed park run, and Tennis brought back their Pickleball tournament! Events from SU groups only raised over £7,000!
This year also saw V Team get involved with Movember for the first time, hosting a Dough Bros: Movember Edition. Dough Bros is a pizza-making event which offers a laid-back space for men to unwind, connect, and learn a new skill. Therefore, really homing in on the mental health aspect of Movember and allowing men to be themselves in a safe environment.
Some SU initiatives were introduced this year which helped to boost our Movember campaign included a poignant display of 365 moustaches cascading from the ceiling in the SU Centre to represent and remember the 365 men who died by suicide each month in the UK last year. This powerful display was on view for the entirety of November and served as an emotional reminder of the message and meaning behind the campaign. Two club nights were also dedicated to Movember to raise even more funds – Movember Score and FOMOvember!
There were also some individuals that really stood out throughout the month. Joshua Burton of the athletics club ran over 400km throughout the month, raising a whopping £1,105! Rachael Minto from women’s rugby completed an eye-watering 60km run in one go! And chair of hockey, Christian Moody, completed perhaps the most interesting challenge as he spontaneously hopped on the cheapest flight out of Bristol Airport and completed challenges set by the public for approximately 24 hours (turns out Tenerife is the cheapest place to travel to)!
These are just three examples of the hundreds of individuals and groups who went above and beyond this month to make this year’s Movember our most successful yet.
There also needs to be a special shoutout to this year’s Movember Ambassadors Manny Langton and Egor Varivoda, along with the rest of the Movember Committee, who were crucial to the success of Movember this year. Amongst their studies and other commitments, they all helped to run the Movember social accounts, contacted sports clubs, advised groups on their fundraising events, organised the limited edition of Movember x Surridge kit, stayed up to date with all things national Movember and even did a bit of modelling of the kit on the side!
The overall total raised by University of Bath students and staff was an unbelievable £50,426 – the most successful Movember campaign in Bath’s history by over £17,000! The University of Bath ranked 11th out of 120 Universities across the country!
A special shout out also must go to the rugby club who were not only the most successful group within Bath, but also were the third best University rugby club in the country and eighteenth best team out of ALL teams in the country! The rugby club alone raised £17,509!
We wanted to take the opportunity to say a huge thank you to all the staff and students who got involved with Movember and to everyone who kindly donated to the cause. It has been such a fantastic month raising awareness and we are absolutely blown away at the total amount raised and the commitment our groups have shown with amazing creative fundraising ideas.
Here’s to going even bigger and better next year…?