With Christmas approaching, staff at allpay Limited are looking forward to a good rest over the festive period following a non-stop fundraising November.

On the 1st November, nine men from the payments specialist in Hereford became Mo Bros to show their support of Movember - an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, which highlights men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer.

The fanTASHtic team made up of Alex Wenyon, Richard Wagstaff, Grzegorz Hanz, Guy Ravenscroft, Andy Lloyd, Gareth Kinsey, Harry Easterbrook, Vinod Giddani, Daley Wear and Rob Sennewald, started the month clean shaven, and then spent the rest of November as walking billboards for men’s health - raising essential funds and awareness through their groomed moustaches for Movember’s men’s health partner – The Prostate Cancer Charity.

On allpay’s Movember Day last Friday, competition was fierce between the Mo Bros, but Harry Easterbrook AKA Curly Rockstar was crowned Mr Movember; with his colleague Emma Deer being voted Miss Movember for her efforts as a Mo Sista.

allpay has supported and donated a lot of money to this great cause for the passed two years. In 2007, the moustached crusaders named themselves ‘Mercury Rising’ and in 2008 they opted for ‘Hair Force One’. This year as The FanTASHtic 500, the Mo Bros of 2009 managed to raise an impressive £592.50.

On the 20th November staff took a short break from the moustache, and turned their attention to baking - to raise money for Children in Need 2009.

On a Friday afternoon allpay has a ‘happy hour’, where staff are treated to free cakes and tea/coffee. However, on this particular Friday, staff were instead invited to bake their own cakes for their colleagues to buy and eat – with all funds raised donated to The Children in Need Appeal.

All cakes baked by staff were entered into allpay’s ‘Bake-Off’ competition. There were some fantastic entries and all tasted as good as they looked – but there could only be two winners (one for small cakes and one for large cakes). After much deliberation, the judges made a decision and awarded Janet Jone’s fudge cake the winner of the large cake category, and Beverley Weston’s little cup cakes the winner of the small cake category.

One cake did however stand out from the rest. Sheila Murray, who is famed within the company for her cake baking skills – surpassed all expectations with her Pudsey themed cake. Winner of allpay’s Children in Need ‘Bake-Off’ 2008 – it was felt that Sheila’s entry was so good, too good in fact – that it should be auctioned to the highest bidder to raise extra cash. The winner of the auction donated the cake to Acorn’s Children’s Hospital in Worcester.

The final total raised from the day was a whopping £206.08

Not content with supporting just two charities during November, allpay employees set about raising money for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

Throughout November, poppies were available to all staff to buy. Money collected from the appeal was £65.70.

All in all a knock-out November with £864.28 raised in total!