Beware the fuzz this 'Movember'

Nov 26 2009 by Mark Cowan, Birmingham Mail

THEY are normally adorn the faces of Mexican banditos – but a group of West Midlands policemen have grown some elaborate moustaches to raise awareness of an devastating illness.

The 20 ‘mustachioed’ officers have been cultivating their upper lip hair throughout this month to help fund the fight against prostate cancer.

And their fan-tache-tic fundraising efforts have raised a whisker short of £1,200 to fund research into the possible treatments for the cancer.

November was re-named Moustache November or ‘Movember’ as part of an international effort to raise awareness of the deadly disease.

So a team of officers from the force’s central Operational Support Unit have been bristling with joy at grooming their facial hair for the charity.

On the group’s internet fund-raising page, PC Marcus Cottrell, said his motivation was “to be slick like Big Tom”, referring to Tom Selleck, star of hit 80s’ TV series Magnum PI.

PC Cottrell, who organised the charity effort, said: “This has been very well received and popular when people have found out why we have all got strange ‘taches.

“We’ve got handlebars, Mexican droopies and some shaped like the letter W. One poor lad who I daren’t name has struggled to grow one so he’s used a bit of dye to increase the effect.”