About 12 months after my Dad passed away from depression, a good friend of mine contacted me to get a bunch of guys to grow Mo’s for Movember and support a great cause doing something positive for men’s health. My mates had always been really supportive in regards to my experience with mental illness and the way it had affected my family but had struggled at times to know how to support me. Doing something fun like growing a Mo was a great, light-hearted way to show that we believed in the cause and it gave us the ability to do something to positively help men’s mental health.
My mates and I spent a bit of time throwing around a few different team names before settling on Mobart Mo Bros, after our home city of Hobart. It was perfect and has stuck through to this very day.
In the early days, we’d do a run from Launceston to Mobart, covering about 200 kilometers, running two kilometers at a time passing the Mo baton. As the event grew, logistics became a bit unsafe on the state’s highways so we set a new challenge and decided we’d run up Mt. Wellington to raise funds and awareness for men’s health. The Point to Pinnacle was an already established fun run but we had a chat with the organizer, who happened to be battling prostate cancer at the time, and ended up with Movember becoming one of the chosen charities for the event.
Each year the Mobart Mo Bros team is made up of different Mo Bros and Mo Sistas. So many people are affected by different men’s health issues and every year there are new rock stars joining the crew that do it year in year out. We also get an incredible amount of support from local businesses, community groups and media. I think it highlights how important the cause is and reaffirms the need for a focus on men’s health.
Waking up every morning and having a staring competition with the mountain is great motivation to train and prepare to tackle the Point to Pinnacle this Movember – even in the pretty harsh conditions down here in Tasmania. It’s great altitude training to help your Mo grow big and bushy, but most importantly, it’s a great way to highlight this important cause and see a real change in our community towards men’s health.
Tom Windsor, Mo Bro since 2006
Visit the Mobart Mo Bros team fundraising page
