How's It Growing?

With just a week left to grow, we have news of new MoBros and lots of 'tache-tastic 'Mo' progress to show you!

There are now 28 Movember participants in Smiths News, hailing from 7 different locations...

Bertrams



Paul Whittingham joins the fray with an impressive Mo!

Saying It’s about time we did some charity work for men’s bits, Paul adds: It's just me and my moustache. Caption could be Hulk Hogan or Seth Armstrong from Emmerdale? – you choose!

Ideas anyone?

Borehamwood

Simon Lockett adds another new Mo and location to our Movember progress :)

Simon has a Just Giving page set up for his donations. Judging by the comments there, his new look is proving to be a 'marmite moment' - 'OMG', 'no likey' and 'the tash really suits you' are just a few of the remarks made thus far!

The Consortium

Andy Aitken and Adam Courthold  are growing well.

Adam is regularly updating his Mospace with progress. He supplied the latest picture of his Mo to left, and his Mospace has some nicely drawn cartoons of what he's hoping to achieve by the end of Movember.

Dawson

[caption id="attachment_4456" align="alignleft" width="300"] Dawson's Mobros Robin Denton and Ian Howat[/caption]

Dawson now have 2 MoBros! Robin Denton  says his motivation is:

My father had Prostate Cancer, now thankfully recovered, so just to raise awareness of this horrible disease.

Robin joins Ian Howat  who's having lots fun over on his Mopage - love the shades Ian!

NAC Banditos...

Andrew Stone (captain), Adam Hellewell, John Jefferson and Mike Ward are all keeping their Mos undercover at the half way stage - see you at the end for the full reveal guys!

Trade Marketing



As you can see the Trade Marketing team are sporting a variety of styles for Movember.

Here we have (from top left and then top right downwards and then bottom right to left) James Bullen, Nick Scraggs, Matt Piper (captain), Andrew Dunkerley, Robert Mackenzie and Tim Edridge.

We look forward to seeing how Neil Davies, Jas Rehal and Darrell Stead are getting on!

James Bullen has a particularly natty slideshow on his individual page! NB individual pages (where applicable) can be viewed via the team page links given.

Worcester

We now have the names of all 9 team members: Alex Williams (captain), Stuart Birch, Adam Buchanan, Matt Cooke,  Mark Falcon, Derek Hampton, James Lamb, Sam Page and Iain Sandison. They have an inventive game for you to play on their team page - can you match the nickname to the team member?

Between them our guys have raised £1,327 so far - follow the links above to your favourite's Movember page and let's see them go to £2,000 and beyond!

To encourage everyone in their final few days effort for this year's Movember, I leave you with the inspiration that is the World Beard and Moustache Championships ;)

NB Links to Just Giving and Movember fundraising pages are no longer available.

Maria Helps to Grant a Wish

Dawson's Maria Hieke made good use of her Volunteer Time recently by spending a day in London with the charity Wishes 4 Kids. Here's her write-up of how she got on...

The charity Wishes 4 Kids was created to grant a wish for children and youngsters who are life limited, terminally ill, have experienced life-changing physical or emotional traumas, have suffered major abuse or are diagnosed as HIV Positive.

Sadly there is not a magical cure for the suffering of these youngsters; however, the charity can bring a short period of respite. The time when a child has a wish granted is a moment that will be treasured by them for the rest of their life. It is also a time which parents will remember - that time when their child forgot the suffering.

This year for their annual Christmas treat the Charity owner Russell organised a day trip to London. We met 3 coaches at Scratchwood Services on the M1 and were escorted by the Metropolitan Police straight into London. Every child was accompanied by one of their parents plus a carer.  Each coach visited each venue alternately by their assigned Police escort. They were taken to Harrods to meet with ‘Father Christmas’ where each child was given a Harrods Christmas bear, then onto Hamleys Toy Store where they were given a £25 voucher to spend. Lunch was provided by MacDonald’s and finally onto the London Eye.  With the help of many volunteers including myself and the Metropolitan Police the day went extremely well, the excitement and smiles on the children’s faces shone the whole day, which was enjoyed by all.

Ensuring there's Hope for Tomorrow

[caption id="attachment_4421" align="aligncenter" width="640"] All set up and ready to go in Cirencester[/caption]

Nicola Hewlett at Rowan House has been in touch with news of her latest fundraising venture, in Cirencester this time.

On November 13th, she helped run the cake stall for the charity Hope for Tomorrow in the Cornhall at the Combined Charities Christmas Fayre. Over 20 local and national charities set out their stalls for the day to raise money for good causes.

Nicola says:

Hope for Tomorrow is a mobile Chemotherapy unit that goes around the small hospitals in the local area to support cancer patients to save them travelling to the big towns for their treatment. We raised £188.65.

It looks like there were lots of goodies on offer!

Newport Supports Children in Need

Newport ensured this year's Children in Need was supported in style last Thursday and Friday, raising £180 in the process. Judy Read reports...

[caption id="attachment_4410" align="alignleft" width="640"] Mmm... Pudsey Cupcakes :)[/caption]

Clare Hockey made some rather scrummy Pudsey cupcakes and sales went rather well. Here's Sarah Collins selling cakes to Maria in the warehouse.



However, if you prefer savoury to sweet, bacon rolls always go down a storm. Gary Cain puts the final touches to his roll. NB I prefer brown sauce too!

As well as selling cakes and bacon rolls to their Newport colleagues, some of the staff in Customer Services went the 'extra mile' and donned their PJs for the day...

[caption id="attachment_4411" align="alignleft" width="640"] All in their PJs for the day - Michelle Yalland, Sarah Melchior, Judy Read, Claire Hockey and Andrew Herbert at the front[/caption]

Worcester Weighs in for Movember

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="640"] Worcester's 'Team Movember' last year[/caption]

We have news of a new team on the block for Movember! Last year's team from Worcester are set to repeat their success with a mix of old and new faces for 2012. Team captain Alex Williams says:

We at the Magazine Sales Centre in Worcester have been taking part in this years ‘Movember’. There are a fair few of us giving it a go although too few have the real capacity to grow a decent moustache.

As well as Alex, the team includes Stuart Birch, Adam Buchanan, Mark Falcon, James Lamb and Sam Page.

We've just passed Movember's half way point - tune in next week to see how progress is growing!

A New Location For Movember

We've heard from Ian Howat of Dawson Books who's sent in his 'Before' picture for this year's Movember. I wonder which 'tache-style we'll be seeing at the 'After' stage?

Movember is a world-wide campaign which raised £88 million for male cancer research last year, with £22 million raised in the UK alone. I wonder how 2012 will fare? Here's Ian's Movember page for you to help top 2011's figure.

The brains behind Movember say that many thousands of lives were saved last year, especially as the estimated 1.2 billion conversations helped to raise awareness. So, just by reading this you're helping to make a difference!

The Community Week Awards in Pictures

[caption id="attachment_4249" align="alignleft" width="225"] Oh look! We're at the Community Week Awards![/caption]

Last Friday saw the staging of the first Smiths News Community Week Awards. The Wroughton Suite at Alexandra House was the chosen venue, which glittered with a sprinkling of gold and stars to welcome our guests.

Many of the Awards nominees from across the Group were in attendance, together with representatives from 2 charities local to Swindon - DASH and Swindon Down's Syndrome Group - who've benefitted from your fundraising in 2012. The mysterious smithsnews who writes this blog was present, as was Andy Cook, who made sure From S to N ran so smoothly.

There was another very special guest, whose identity will be revealed shortly.

The following photographs are designed to give you a flavour of the day. Look out for the Dispatches special hitting your desks shortly, which gives you more in the way of details about the award winners. It's hoped the Community Week Awards will become a firm fixture in Smiths News' calendar. See you there next year?

[caption id="attachment_4251" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The scene is set for lunch...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4250" align="aligncenter" width="300"] ... and Michael Jamieson's here :)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4252" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Oh my! Someone's a winner![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4253" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A sneak peek at some of the winners[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4254" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Michael thanks everyone for their support this year[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4255" align="aligncenter" width="300"] So everyone wants to have their picture taken with him...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4256" align="aligncenter" width="300"] ... and he gracefully complies with a smile[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4257" align="aligncenter" width="300"] On the way home with an award after a great day[/caption]

Thanks to smithsnews and @bertramlibs for the photos.

*Newsflash* MoBros Extra!

[caption id="attachment_4293" align="alignright" width="140"] Andy Aitken anticipates the end of Movember ;)[/caption]

We have news just in of more MoBros from across the Group.

Andy Dunkerley has sent in his profile details for team Trade Marketing and Andy Aitken has added to The Consortium's Movember turnout.

James Bullen has joined Trade Marketing's team, so they now have 9 team members, not 8 as previously reported.

This means the Group has at least 15 Movember participants - tashtastic!

Aaaaaand so...

... the NAC Banditos have sent in their 'Before' picture and where they hope to be at the end of the month. Will they get there? Visiting their donation page may help...

NB Donation pages on Movember are no longer available - Ed

Movember Grows... and Grows!

[caption id="attachment_4237" align="alignright" width="268"] Adam's 'before' picture - courtesy of his Movember page[/caption]

We have another MoBro in the form of The Consortium's Adam Courthold.

Adam says his reasons for taking part are:

I know a few people who have had testicular cancer and treatment over the last few years. I'm doing Movember to raise awareness of it and to get people checking themselves. Catching the situation early is important so they can get the best treatment in place.

Adam's Movember page is now open :)

NB Trade Marketing's Rob Mackenzie has now sent in his Movember page details.

Thanks for joining in Adam! We'll be catching up with you, Rob and the rest of the MoBros soon.