As the month of November continues, more charities and students across Merseyside have been coming together to commemorate the well-known month of Movember.
This is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during November to raise awareness of men’s health issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer and men’s suicide.
Since Movember began in 2003, the foundation has raised £670m and funded over 1,200 projects across the world.
The aim of Movember is to make significant change across the areas of educating men to stay mentally healthy and to take action early, to create a world where men are more comfortable in having conversations about the big things in life, making services designed with the needs of men in mind and lastly putting funding towards vital research and treatments for men’s health.
Students in Liverpool have been coming together to take part in the growing of their moustaches and taking part in events such as Move for Movember where you can run or walk 60km over the month which is 60km for the 60 men that are lost to suicide every hour across the world.
You can host a Mo-monet which consists of getting together a group and doing something fun for the course and the easiest way to take part being in donating.
Both John Moores University and University of Liverpool have their own Movember pages where you can donate. John Moores have had a series of events going with one last remaining one The Big Movember Pub Quiz taking place at Lime St Pub and Kitchen on the 30th of November.
Adam Roberts, student at John Moores, has been taking part in Movember and grew his moustache for the course and has been raising funds.
Adam said: “Speaking up on men’s health issues is so important in a society where we are taught its not manly to do so.
“So anything I can do to help move people move away from this ideal, I will get involved in.
“Doing Movember has been super fun and so far I have raised £50 towards the Movember charity.”
Across Merseyside there is men’s health charities that are accessible for times of need.
Gemma Mathews, senior communications manager at James’ Place Charity, spoke to MerseyNewsLive about breaking the stigma of men speaking up about the issues they face.
“It’s really important to normalise talking about suicide, one in four people will experience suicidal thoughts in their lifetime so we need to be comfortable in talking about that and we just really want people to know that there is help available,” she said.
James’ Place is a centre located on Catharine Street in Liverpool that offers free, lifesaving treatment to men in suicidal crisis.
They offer free face to face therapy with a trained professional therapist to help those in need work out why they are feeling that way and ways in which they can solve it.
Gemma said: “Although we know it can be really difficult to reach out for support and help, once you do it, it can be life changing.”
For more information on James’ Place Charity, click here.
Featured image (c) Bella Cox
