Two Ottawa women are using their spot as some of the area’s more distinctive Movember participants to raise money in the name of their grandfather.
Twin sisters Joelle and Danielle Hamilton are wearing realistic, but fake moustaches for the month with the goal of raising $5,000 for men’s health.
“(They’re) as real as a woman’s moustache can get,” said Danielle, taking a break from chatting with potential donors in the Byward Market on Sunday.
The Hamiltons said their motivation is the man they call “Grandpa Jack”, their grandfather and leader of the Ottawa Police Pipe Band who died of prostate cancer on Nov. 12, 2011.
"(The band) made a song just for him, it was just incredible,” said Joelle.
“It was absolutely amazing and I'm actually going to start crying if I talk too much about it.”
The twins said part of their campaign is a willingness to talk to anyone and everyone about their facial hair, getting reactions from envy (men and women alike) to admiration and even some fear.
Danielle said her work as a family doctor is leading to her efforts to make men’s health easier to talk about.
"The thing is that if men aren't coming into my office to talk to me openly about these sort of things . . . I can't do much for them right?" she said.
So while there are some perks to being women with moustaches looking to fundraise, they said they do have one problem men don’t have to deal with.
“One of the perils of the job,” they said. “The moustache falls off often.”
With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Stefan Keyes
