South Coast College teacher Ottoraises £400 for Movember appeal

Otto grew his moustache throughout November, and with support from friends, family, staff and students managed to smash his original target of £200 to raise double that amount.

On average, men die four years earlier than women, and the foundation aims to encourage more men to live healthy lives and be more open when talking about health problems.

Otto said: “Thank you very much to everyone who supported and contributed to this great cause.

“Supporting the Movember Foundation is something that is close to my heart. The charity aims to prevent men dying too young and one of the biggest causes of death in young men is suicide.

“I was staggered to find out that 78% of all suicides are men and 13 men commit suicide in the UK every day.

“Men often think it’s weak to talk about their feelings and can have a tendency to bottle things up until they ‘snap’.

“We need to encourage men to talk to each other and remove the stigma around mental health issues, anxiety and depression.

“I know that this money raised is going to a great cause and will make a difference in the fight to lower the rate of male suicide.”

It is the third year that Otto has supported Movember, and he has raised almost £900 to date. You can still donate to his fundraising page here: https://mobro.co/ottohaas.

The Movember Foundation claims to be the charity tackling men’s health on a global scale, year round.

It addresses some of the biggest health issues faced by men: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health and suicide prevention.

In 13 years it has funded more than 1,200 men’s health projects around the world.

Among its aims is to reduce the number of men dying prematurely by 25 percent by the year 2030.

Movember started in 2003 when around 30 men grew moustaches. This year the appeal saw more than five million grown.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make our website your homepage at www.hastingsobserver.co.uk

2 Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/hastingsobserver

3 Follow us on Twitter @HastingsObs

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

The Hastings Observer - always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.