Compliments inspire Movember mo-grower to keep on going

Tom Frankish took a photo of his moustache every day during Movember.

Now that Movember has come to an end, Tom Frankish is not so sure he wants to shave off his Chopper Reid-inspired moustache.

Having cultivated a furry upper lip for five Novembers in a row now - to raise money for Men's Health, a charity supporting problems such as prostate and testicular cancer and depression - the 25-year-old could be considered a Movember veteran. He has raised $110 with the support of friends and colleagues, less than the $250 he raised last year.

Over the month, Mr Frankish has received a few compliments on his moustache, which he said he thoroughly enjoyed.

"The thing about a moustache compliment is it's one of the greatest compliments you can get. It's so good for your self-esteem ... It's almost better than about 10 high-fives ..."

He is considering keeping the moustache.

"I'll probably keep growing it for another month, see how things go."

So far, Kiwi mo-growers have helped raise $1.1 million and Movember spokesman Robert Dunne said he expected donations to continue flowing in up to Christmas.

He hoped to top last year's total fundraising effort of $1.5 million

There were 37,000 individual donations and 11,629 people signed up to grow a mo last month.

Sitting at the top of the fundraising leaderboard was Sean Brown, who had yesterday raised $7562.

Worldwide, Canada topped the fundraising leaderboard, having raised more than $20 million. New Zealand was in seventh place.