8 December 2020
Personnel from No. 76 Squadron at RAAF Base Williamtown are ditching their daily shave in support of Movember and Decembeard.
Movember focuses on mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer and Decembeard is Bowel Cancer Australia’s campaign to increase awareness and raise funds to help beat bowel cancer.
The activity has been coordinated by C Flight Commander Squadron Leader Jason De Iuliis.
“Members can go without shaving and are encouraged to donate money to both charities,” Squadron Leader De Iuliis said.
“They could start growing their beard as early as November so long as they contributed additional funds.”
The squadron has opened the fundraiser to all their members and currently have 26 hairy participants.
Some female members are participating in Move-ember, a welcome component of Movember, which allows all to get involved by committing to physical activities.
The Squadron is aiming to raise $750 and is confident of reaching this goal.
According to the Movember website unchecked, prostate cancer rates will double over the next 15 years and globally, testicular cancer is the most common cancer among men aged 15-39.
And across the world, one man dies by suicide every minute of every day, with males accounting for 75 per cent of all suicides.
For more information on these fundraising campaigns go to https://au.movember.com/ and https://www.bowelcanceraustralia.org/decembeard
