By Scott Jackson, DLD

30 days ago I shaved my upper lip for the last time and settled down for a month of itchiness and looking pretty dodgy. Thousands of men around the UK did the same, whilst many more strapped on their running trainers and got outside to cover some ground, all in the name of Movember, the UK’s leading men’s mental health and prostate cancer charity.  

Myself and six other DLDs have spent the last month pestering everyone we know for donations. We’ve never met in person yet it feels like we know each other well. Many around the UK are in similar positions at the moment, some have not been into the office since March and that loss of human interaction can make it easy for loneliness to set in. We’ve all seen the news and how lockdown has impacted people’s mental health, and so this year Movember is arguably more important than ever. It’s been a lot of fun sharing updates of our progress with each other and laughing and joking about our questionable moustaches, but there is a more serious side to all of this. If you know someone who’s by themselves at the moment, please take the time to reach out to them, you never know who might be struggling. 

I think this experience has shown me how charity in the workplace can be a great way of promoting team spirit. Having something which you can all unite behind and work towards outside of our normal working responsibilities and across different departments and teams really helps to generate a community spirit and I would definitely recommend giving it a go if there’s a charity you want to support.  

But anyway, how did we do? After a full month of itchy-upper-lip and tired feet, we’ve managed to raise an amazing £800 between us, whilst the University has done an incredible job and smashed last years’ total to raise £195,000! We’re very grateful to everyone who has taken part and everyone who has donated, it’s brilliant to be doing this for such an important cause. November may be over but you can still donate to our team if the mood takes you, in the meantime though, here’s what our faces looked like at the end of the month… 

Top row: Louis Clement-Harris, Scott Jackson, Annabel Ilic

Bottom Row: Maria Georgouli Loupi, Josh Oldridge, Bradley Hale, Kate Prior

It should be noted that the ladies opted for a mixture of walking/running and covered 103km between them over the course of the month 🙂