Movember 2020 round-up: Durham teams raise over £61,000 in this year’s campaign

45 teams came together to surpass their original fundraising target of £50,000.


Last week, Movember’s annual campaign officially drew to a close, an event which saw several efforts nationally from both groups and individuals endeavouring to grow taches and raise money.

The Movember Foundation charity, which aims to raise awareness of issues affecting men’s health, including the detection of prostate cancer and male suicide prevention, saw teams at Durham University collectively raise over £61,000. This sum is correct as of the time of writing, but still continuing to rise.

This year, 469 individuals across 45 Durham University teams signed up to participate. In spite of the pandemic and the changes it brought to people’s usual Movember efforts, the teams completely smashed their original shared fundraising target of £50,000.

We caught up with some of this year’s biggest fundraisers, to find out more about how they got involved and why.

DURFC

Four attempts from members of DURFC. From left to right, Rhys, Jamie, Matt, Clarkson.

Durham University Rugby Football Club topped the Durham University fundraising table this year, with the club managing to raise an impressive £9,054. Though their customary charity match had to be put on hold this year, over 50 DURFC members committed to growing out their facial hair, with others taking on additional challenges during the month.

On DURFC’s success in Movember, Rhys Belcher of the club told The Tab Durham: “This year we’ve managed to smash our previous fundraising total by roughly £5,000, over 50 members of the club whom took part were invaluable in helping us get this far.

“Special mentions to Alex Curtis for lifting 600,000 kgs over the month- that’s 10,000 for every man who commits suicide every hour. Also Seb Carley ran 100km over the month which is a fantastic effort. Hopefully the rugby club can continue this level of fundraising for years to come.”

Josephine Butler College Football Club

Some of the taches from the members of JBCFC. From left to right, George, Bruno, Euan.

This year, the Josephine Butler College Football Club collectively raised £5,200, placing them second on this year’s table. A combined effort between all of the college’s football teams, JBCFC also set out to run 1000km between them.

The club told The Tab Durham: “JBCFC first took part in Movember last year where, thanks mainly to an amazing effort from our F team, we raised just under £3,000.

“This year, our initial aim was to beat that £3,000 mark. Through growing many a tache and running a remarkable 1000km, we managed to hit £2,000 above our target, reaching the £5,000 milestone as November came to an end.

“Despite us collectively struggling on the facial hair front, the efforts made by all the lads and everyone who donated will hopefully make a difference in improving the state of men’s health, an incredibly important issue, exaggerated by what has happened over the last year.”

The Movid-19 team

The six members of the team by the end of Movember. Images via Instagram @m0vid19

Coming in third this year was the Movid-19 team, a house of six Hild Bede finalists, who managed to raise a very impressive £4,669 between them. Bringing a whole host of novel fundraising events to the Durham Movember scene, the team’s efforts included a 24 hour cookathon, and their own take on the Village People classic, YMCA.

On their Movember success this year, the team told us: “This year, Movember provided an excellent opportunity to not only raise funds for a fantastic cause and to normalise discourse surrounding men’s mental health, but to stay connected to our community during such an isolating time.

“We wanted fundraising to be founded upon a demonstrative commitment to the wider community, whether it involved sauntering in front of the library as the Village People, or by cooking for those less fortunate than ourselves. Above all else, we hope we were able to lift spirits during a very challenging time.”

The Top 10 leaderboard this year is as follows:

  1. Durham University Rugby Football Club – £9,054, 84.
  2. Josephine Butler College Football Club – £5,200.69.
  3. M0VID-19 – £4669.50.
  4. Hatfield College Rugby Football Club – £4,096.50.
  5. College of St Hild and St Bede – £3,372.00.
  6. Durham University Touch Rugby Club -£2,903.30.
  7. Grey College Rugby Club – £2,773.00.
  8. Durham University Cricket Club – £2,763,57.
  9. HCAFC – £2,756.90.
  10. John Snow Rugby – £2,109.62.

All fundraising statistics correct as of the time of publishing, although donations can still be made via the Movember website.

For more information on this year’s participating teams, or to make a donation, click here