It’s a hair-raising way to raise money for charity. The stiff upper lips of the men in Marks and Spencer at the Eagles Meadow shopping centre are under scrutiny as never before.
The gentlemen in the Wrexham store are in pursuit of the hirsute – because moustaches mean money.
M&S manager Paul Taylor and about 10 other staff are being sponsored to grow moustaches in aid of The Prostate Cancer Charity. March is Prostate Cancer Awareness month nationally and regionally the M&S stores are raising money in support of the charity.
It’s a cause close to the heart of 25-year-old Adam Richards, from Wrexham, who looks after store operations. His father Clive is just making a successful recovery from prostate cancer – a disease which killed Clive’s own father.
“He found out he’d got it on December 17, my birthday, not a great day to find out,” said Adam.
“My mother made him go to the doctor because he’d had a hernia and had a bit of a bad stomach. He went for a check-up and it was a good job he did.
He had various scans and it was a bit of a wait to find out but then they confirmed it was prostate cancer.
“He had key-hole surgery about two weeks ago, all quite quick. His father had it and died and his mother died of cancer as well. I think after the operation he realised how lucky he’d been.
“He doesn’t need treatment, like chemo’, thankfully, the operation was 100 per cent successful. He’ll just need future scans to make sure it hasn’t spread.”
It has made Adam realise how important it is to have a regular check-up.
He’s joined in the moustache growing fund raiser and the Crusaders rugby fan has already collected £80 from his last trip on the supporters’ bus.
Wrexham M&S has already raised thousands in support of Breast Cancer Awareness, with its Pink march and other fund-raisers making it one of the most successful and generous in the region.
“The Prostate Cancer Charity has a moustache growing fund raiser in November which it calls Movember (corr) so we thought as we were helping Prostate Cancer Charity this month we would grow moustaches too,” said manager Paul.
“Unfortunately M&S is a predominantly female staff so that means there are not too many of us who can take part! We’ve not had too many adverse comments so far, but it’s been a laugh.”
Paul has set his Wrexham store a fund-raising target of £3,000 and a regional target of £60,000.
“We also have charity singers coming to the store to perform, called Sing For Life. They will be performing just inside the front door on March 26 and 27 and half their collection goes to their charity and the other half to ours.
“We will also be having a wear something blue weekend, bag packing sessions where customers can donate, and in-store and customer raffles.”
Nationally the Prostate Cancer Charity’s regular November “Mo Bro’s” – which is what the moustache growing men are called – raised a staggering £9m last year.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK with 37,000 men diagnosed with the disease every year. Currently there are 250,000 men living with the disease.
Eagles Meadow Manager Kevin Critchley is full of admiration for the fund-raising efforts of the M and S men.
He said: “It’s a very worthwhile cause and I hope they achieve and even surpass their target.”
