About us

After seeing the success of Movember where men grow moustaches during the month of November to help raise awareness of prostate cancer, we thought – why stop there?

Tashes for testicles, beards for bowels – let’s merge that mo into a full on beard to help raise awareness of bowel cancer.

Beards for Bowels started in January 2011 primarily to help raise awareness, however it was Chris Evans on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show who announced he would be growing a beard to help raise money during the month of December, branding it Decembeard in the UK. Decembeard quickly became an annual event for both charities and fundraisers across the UK, however Decembeard does go back to 2009 where in America it’s to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. No matter what charity or what you are raising awareness for, beards are a very topical conversation point for all causes.

Seeing the lack of digital ways to donate, we built a free iPhone application which is available in the Apple AppStore which:

  • Gives information on bowel cancer and useful contact details
  • Take a picture, show off your natural beard or choose from a range of fake ones to position on yourself and then share on Twitter, Facebook or email to help raise awareness with your friends, family and followers
  • Select a donation amount and choose from JustGiving or JustTextGiving by Vodafone (UK only) to donate directly to charity

Our chosen charity is Bowel Cancer UK (@DecembeardUK on Twitter) and our JustGiving page allows people around the world to donate direct to the cause. JustTextGiving by Vodafone allows people in the UK to donate by sending the short-code ‘DECB47′ and amount to the SMS number 70070, eg; DECB47 £2 to 70070 however our iPhone app pre-fills this in for you. Please visit our donation page for other ways to make a pledge.

Our website, social profiles and iPhone app gets a full on Christmas make-over and we join thousands of other fund raisers and charities during the month of December for our #Decembeard campaign. We ask men and even the follicly challenged to help us raise awareness by posting their bearded selfies on Twitter and Facebook so we can publish and pin on our Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest boards.

On the 25th February 2013, we were informed by JustGivingAwards that we had been nominated for a JustTextGiving by Vodafone Mobile Fundraiser of the Year award and we attended the awards ceremony at Troxy, London on Thursday 11th April. Although we did not win, we have been so humble for the nominations and the recognition of what we have been campaigning for and we thank you all for your continued support.

Join us in our journey to help raise support and awareness of bowel cancer.

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