Okehampton firefighters have raised nearly £1,400 as part of the Movember challenge to increase awareness of men’s physical and mental health issues.

Over the course of November, nine firefighters from Okehampton’s Station 13 joined the national fundraising event and grew moustaches for the charity Movember which focuses on supporting men through physical and mental problems.

Firefighters Craig Patrick, Steve Cleave, Tom Beagent, Tim Stevens, Ricky Woolridge, Steve Essery, Billy Spence, Austin Kiely and Bryan Evans all took part in the challenge.

The team initially expected to raise only several hundred pounds but received so many donations that they raised the target twice before settling on £1,000.

They beat their target by nearly £400 and have raised an overall total of £1,395 for the charity.

Mr Stevens also completed a 62km walk from Newton Abbot to Plymouth last weekend to raise extra funds for Movember.

He started the walk at 6am from the Cyress Mental Health Unit in Newton Abbot and ended the walk outside Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, raising over £200.

Movember was founded in 2003 with the aim of raising awareness of men’s mental and physical health issues including prostate cancer, testicular cancer and the high level of mental health problems in young men.

Since its beginnings in Australia 18 years ago, the charity has funded over 1,250 men’s health projects and now has over six million ’Mo Bros’ and ’Mo Sisters’ who have taken part in fundraising events for the charity.

The charity has sponsors in countries worldwide including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA.