THE spirits of Salvador Dali, Groucho Marx and Fu Manchu were alive in Comet country last month as moustaches sprouted from charity fundraisers.

Officers from Stevenage Police Station cultivated facial hair as part of Movember, which challenges men to grow a moustache throughout November and raises money for The Prostate Cancer Charity.

Pc Andy Spencer, who organised their effort, said: “Movember is a great and fun way for us to help raise funds and awareness for such a fantastic cause as most, if not all, of us have been touched by cancer in one form or another in the past, myself included, having lost my father to cancer 14 years ago.

“The ‘Mo’ will unfortunately be coming off on December 1. Although I quite like it, my wife has given strict instructions for it to be removed, even threatening to remove it when I’m asleep.”

The team raised over �1,400 but there is still time to donate via http://uk.movember.com/mospace/294318.

However it wasn’t just our boys in blue who dodged a razor with a small team of technical staff from IET, in Stevenage, taking up the challenge.

The team raised over �400 and were led by Lee Redmond in their fundraising efforts.

He said: “I have a history of prostate cancer in my family so I wanted to do my bit. It did not take a lot of persuading to get a few of my colleagues to take up the challenge.”

Movember was founded in 2004 in Australia and has grown into a global movement raising cash for charity.