It is with great pride that I announce myself as the bearded lady of the charity world.
My dad was in many ways a very stereotypical dad, he liked a good ale, supported AFC Wimbledon, got more upset about Dan Cole being injured during the Six Nations than he ever did about the passing away of a family pet. Not having a son to share these things with was no problem for Dad – he simply forced me to share them with him instead.
So when Dad was tragically diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, it was a no brainer for me to take on the Movember cause in the name of men’s health, regardless of my own gender.
As Dad heroically battled through the trials and tribulations of chemotherapy, losing his hair and the ability to grow a moustache in the process, I proudly whacked on a fake tache during my morning commute every day throughout the month of November in the hope of raising crucial funds and awareness on his behalf. And there, my love for the charity was born.
Movember allowed me to channel my anger at the disease that I knew would eventually take my wonderful father from me. As he fought the illness, I fought to make sure that other men would not meet the same fate, that other daughters would not lose their heroes. It gave Dad and I yet another father/daughter activity to bond over and year after year, our passion for moustache-ing grew.
Losing Dad was the worst day of my life. I had lost my very best friend, my rock, my comrade. But you know what? Without the groundbreaking medical research funded by Movember, I would have lost him several years earlier. So rather than giving in to grief I knew that I had to take on the challenge that Dad and I had started together, on my own. I owed it to him and the charity.
In November 2015, I kicked a social media campaign into action. Men live five to 10 years less than women, so I asked my friends to donate £5 in the name of a chap that they wanted to keep around for those additional years – be it a father, brother, best friend or boyfriend. I then simply asked them to tag five friends through their own social media network to do the same.
The campaign took off immediately and I was astonished to have raised more than a thousand pounds within the first week. The end of November quickly swung around and as I logged on to my MoSpace that evening, I found that I was sitting at the top of of the MoSista leaderboard in the UK. It wasn’t the beginning of my mission to change the face of men’s health, but it was most certainly the day that I felt I was that my journey was underway.
So now I Mo in Dad’s name. Movember allows me to talk about Rick Dorrington, a man that everyone should know about. If even one man is saved as a result of my campaigning, it will most certainly be more than worth it.
The day I made a difference is the Guardian Voluntary Sector Network’s series that showcases the work of people involved with charities. If you have a story you want to share email voluntarysectornetwork@theguardian.com with a short summary of your experience.
