‘We’re so proud of everyone’: Exeter Uni has already raised over £87,000 for Movember

Exeter Uni has raised the most money for November so far, with the total amount currently standing at £87, 993.

The record amount of money raised by a university was set by Exeter last year with £88, 300.

Exeter Movember is run by current students Josh, Jamie, Charlie and Drew. They told The Exeter Tab: “The record for a single university is £88,300 set by us last year, so we are optimistic that we’ll break that.

“In terms of a prediction, we didn’t really go into the campaign with a number in mind, we just wanted to raise as much as we possibly could for the charity.

“Obviously we were aware of last year’s target, and the uni has bettered the previous year’s total every year so that was definitely a goal, although given Covid that felt like it would be ambitious this year. We’re very glad to have been proven wrong in that respect.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

MO OF THE WEEK! It’s early days but we would love to see what your moustaches are looking like so far! Private message us a photo of your moustache, or your mates! On Sunday we will pick a week one winner who will receive a Movember themed gift! In other news – we are past £60k!!! Let’s keep going. Look after yourselves and others this Movember.

A post shared by University of Exeter Movember (@exeter_movember) on Nov 6, 2020 at 2:39am PST

All four students said they have their own reasons for setting up the Exeter Movember page. Josh told us: “I first got involved last year. I suffer from pretty bad depression and social anxiety, and lost someone very close to me this year, so I want to do something to help combat the terrifying statistics and help other men feel comfortable addressing their problems.”

Jamie spoke to us about his experience having a family member with prostate cancer: “I got involved due to the personal significance of the campaign to me having had close friends/family suffering from mental health problems and prostate cancer.”

Charlie and Drew spoke about similar issues, highlighting the issues of men’s mental health: “I got involved simply because I couldn’t bear the thought of losing someone close to me before their time. I want to minimise the chance of that happening to anyone.

“I’ve had mental health problems in the past and far too many of my close friends have also been affected by it, I wanted to help make sure that men knew healthy ways to address their problems instead of bottling it up.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Today’s the first day of Movember! Get signed up and get donating for a great cause and help change the face of men’s health!

A post shared by University of Exeter Movember (@exeter_movember) on Nov 1, 2019 at 5:56am PDT

Josh added: “Movember all means a lot to us for a number of different reasons, so it really hits home to see Exeter get so involved and be so enthusiastic for it.

“Some of the things we’ve seen people doing this year in terms of challenges has been absolutely insane, it’s inspiring stuff. I honestly don’t know if anything brings Exeter together like Movember. Maybe TP Wednesdays, and summer at the Impy…

“So much of our job has already been taken care of by the incredible ambassadors Exeter has had before who helped build Movember here into what it is. Charlie Stuart, Zane Jallad, Sam Spriddell, Toby Gill and others all put in just ridiculous amounts of work to make our job a lot easier than it could’ve been, and we’re very grateful to them.

“The university is now amongst some of the highest raising organisations in the entire world, seriously. We’re really, really, overwhelmingly, exceedingly proud of everyone.”

The Exeter tab asked Exeter students on our Instagram about the kinds of challenges they were doing to raise money for Movember, with some of our favourites included below:

Jimmy, EUTC Captain

“Swimming 60km in the sea”

Sam

“Shaved my head”

Hope

“My boyfriend is having his legs waxed into hairy zebra stripes”

Jess

“Walking 125k throughout November – the number of suicides a week in the UK”

Sam

“Walking 871km across the month (distance from Exeter to Geneva)”

Adela

“Move for Movember! £1 for every 1km walked”

Amber

“Not eating sugar, drinking or smoking for the whole month”

You can sign up to donate or join the Movember challenge here. 

If you or someone you know has been affected by this story, please speak to someone or contact Samaritans on 116 123 at any time. You can also contact Anxiety UK on 03444 775 774, Mind on 0300 123 3393, and Calm (Campaign against living miserably, for men aged 15 to 35) on 0800 58 58 58.

You matter.