McMaster student raises cash by growing ‘stache for Movember charity

It is November, and that means men around the world are letting their upper-lip hair grow for a good cause: “Movember.”

The fundraiser for men’s health is in its 19th year in Canada, and a member of a local sports team has been raising money and awareness for close to a decade.

Spens Alexander, a member of the McMaster Marauders rugby team, has raised close to $70,000 for Movember in the last three years alone.

Every year, the McMaster rugby team takes part in Movember, A fundraiser for men’s health.

“We run a huge campaign with our rugby program here,” said Alexander. “Being the top fundraising sports team in Canada for the past five consecutive years, that’s a huge part of our identity and culture.”

Alexander is a fifth year commerce student and a “prop” on the team, who has a personal connection with Movember.

“My father has secondary progressive MS,” said Alexander. “So honestly, putting yourself out there: being able to break that stigma, being able to talk about your problems with people, especially in recent years with mental health being so profound and prominent.”

Alexander and his teammates have raised a lot of money over the years, with events like T-shirt sales.

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“I took over as one of the directors of the campaign around two years ago and since then we’ve done close to $70,000,” said Alexander. “Last year $31,000.”

“We’ve had over 47,000 people participate last year — we anticipate a similar number this year and even more to start and grow the community,” said Catherine Corriveau, with Movember Canada. “We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Canada, as a result of the money being raised every year.”

Movember is in its 19th year here in Canada, and the charity says raising awareness is just as important as raising money.

“Men face unique challenges: stigma, harmful gender biases, and these norms that ‘men don’t talk’ and ‘they should be tough’ and so on,” said Corriveau. “That leads them to engage in a culture of silence and inaction, so they’re not getting the care that they need in a timely way.”

The premise of Movember is simple: collect donations by growing a moustache.

That said, Alexander says filling out that facial hair isn’t easy for everyone.

“I’m a slow grower, I can’t lie — it has been about a week, just over, but hopefully, fingers crossed, by the end of the month I’ll have something to show for it,” said Alexander.

Anyone interested in donating, or signing up for the fundraiser can go to movember.com.

You can also go to the McMaster Marauders Instagram page here to buy a T-shirt and support the team.

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