Santander Cycles to sport handlebar moustaches for Movember

Over a thousand of London’s 10,000 Santander Cycles will this month be sporting handlebar moustaches as part of Movember. Santander will donate £1 to the Movember Foundation for every original image of one that is shared on Twitter or Instagram accompanied by the #MoCycle hashtag.

Eighteen inches wide, these mos should be easy to spot – particularly as 200 of them are gold in colour. When images of these limited edition moustaches are shared with the #MoCycle hashtag, Santander will donate £3 to the charity.

Movember baseball caps signed by Rory McIllroy and free hire codes will also be awarded to participants throughout the month with winners chosen at random from all photographs submitted.

Keith Moor, Chief Marketing Officer of Santander said:

“We hope people will have a bit of fun spotting the moustaches and sharing their pictures, whilst at the same time raising funds and awareness for Movember. We’re encouraging everyone on the streets of London to look out for the Santander Cycles sporting a #MoCycle, share their photos and help raise funds for this great cause.”

The Movember Foundation is a global charity raising funds and awareness for men’s health. Each November, millions of men around the world grow – or at least try to grow – moustaches. Funds raised are directed to men’s health programmes focusing on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, poor mental health and physical inactivity.

The Movember Foundation’s new initiative for 2015 is the MOVE challenge in which men and women are encouraged to make 30 MOVEs in 30 days, building walking, cycling or other workouts into their daily routine.

Earlier this year, a study found that inactivity causes twice as many European deaths as obesity. Researchers at the University of Cambridge found that inactivity causes 676,000 deaths a year, while obesity contributes to approximately 337,000 deaths.

Laura Mair from the Movember Foundation said of Santander’s involvement:

“This is a fantastic initiative which really brings to life what we are trying to achieve with our MOVE challenge and we are very grateful to Santander and TfL for their support. Being active is one of the best things you can do for your health, and building even just a short cycle ride into your daily activity will help. We hope that seeing a Santander Cycle with a mo will prompt people to think what activity they could add to their day, and of course, to share on social media to raise funds.”