Gringos raise awareness of men’s health

A group of Mingenew men sporting moustaches have raised more than $80,000 for men’s health charity Movember Foundation.

The Mingenew Gringos brought Movember to their town last month in response to recent suicides in the community.

Group co-ordinator Jarrad Kupsch said there was a huge team effort to raise awareness about male mental health.

“There has been recent tragedies in town regarding suicide, so it made us want to do something,” Mr Kupsch said.

“That was really the driving force behind it, and it really caused people to have a chat and generate some of the Are You OK conversations.”

Fellow co-ordinator Anthony Smythe said the Mingenew Gringos and all their supporters demonstrated the strength of the Mingenew community.

“There has been a lot of discussion in the community about mental health issues, and we’ve had a bad run here locally with tragedies,” Mr Smythe said.

“Suicide is the biggest killer of males in Australia, and we know people have been doing Movember here and there since it started, but we wanted to crank it up and make it big.

“At the end of the month, we had a Mo’ Event, which was a huge success — between 250-300 people showed up.

“A lot of people from outside of Mingenew attended. There was great involvement from people who live in Carnamah, Coorow, Geraldton, the Murchison, Watheroo and Three Springs.

“It really shows the strength of the community of Mingenew, and it’s a credit to everyone there.”