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Make your Mark this Movember

You may have heard of Movember; an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men’s suicide. In October of last year, we lost a much beloved colleague to prostate cancer, Mark Bellman. Mark was one of the founders of Blanchards Bailey in its current iteration and was a popular part of the local business community, particularly in and around Blandford Forum.

So, this year for “Movember” a number of the Blanchards Bailey men (“Mo-bros”) are going to “grow their mo” in memory of our friend Mark and to raise awareness and funds towards prostate cancer research. We are approaching other businesses to recruit other “Mo-Bros” to join us in our cause and have been delighted to have received several recruits already.

Each Mo-bro will start Movember cleanshaven, then grow a moustache and raise sponsorship and awareness of prostate cancer over the month.

But Movember doesn’t mean that our “mo sisters” (or anyone who does not wish to grow a mo) cannot be involved. Many of “Mark’s Mo-Bros and Mo-Sisters” from Blanchards Bailey have pledged to run or walk 60km or more over the next month to raise awareness and sponsorship.

Also, and in keeping with the times, we have designed a special moustachioed face mask, each bearing a mo-jestic mo which will be available for £5 from our Blandford office (or postage can be arranged). All proceeds over the cost of the mask shall go to the Movember charity.

Decorating, bedazzling or embellishing face masks is actively encouraged and the best decorated face mask by the end of the month will win a bottle of bubbles. Similarly, the most outstanding mo at the end of the month will also be awarded a bottle.

Participants will be encouraged to raise awareness and funds by sharing progress pictures by email, Twitter, Facebook, carrier pigeon, smoke signal… (you name it!) with contacts, colleagues, clients, friends and family. We would love to get as many people as possible to join us in using the hashtag #markmovember (in memory of Mark) – that way we can all keep up to date with the progress of all involved.

Our progress can be monitored via the Team’s Movember page which can be found by clicking here. The page can be shared by participants to allow any donations to be made to the charity directly.

We are keen to get as many people involved as possible so as to raise as much in the way of funds and awareness of this noble cause in Mark’s memory. Naturally, in reading this, if you and/or any colleagues, friends or family would like to join “Mark’s Mo-Bros and Mo-Sisters” please get in touch.

Otherwise, please join us as we mark Movember in memory of our sorely missed colleague Mark Bellman. Any and all donations via the team page for “Mark’s Mo-Bros and Mo-Sisters” are very gratefully received.

Paul Appleby
Author: Paul Appleby