The team from Moveit4smiles held their pedometer challenge, where teams compete to see who can take the most steps, as part of the Argus Appeal Charity Golf Tournament at the East Brighton Golf Course.
As part of the initiative 80 keen participants were challenged to keep a track of how many steps they took during the day, with prizes going to the person who did the most and the person who did the least steps.
Aside from raising money in aid of mouth cancer the event raised an impressive total amount of £10,000, to be split between local charities including; The Argus Appeal, Rockinghorse, Cystic Fibrosis charities and Birdies 4 Children.
Speaking on the event, co-founder of Moveit4smiles, Christina Chatfield said: “Everybody had a wonderful day and managed to raise an incredible amount of money, The Argus Appeal is a fantastic cause which has contributed to the local community for almost six decades and we are excited to be part of it.
“As well as raising valuable funds for mouth cancer the initiative has also helped to drive awareness of the urgent need for gender neutral HPV vaccinations to help prevent mouth cancer within the local community.
“We are especially thankful as this was the first time that Argus benefited a non-local charity and have already agreed to support the Moveit4smiles pedometer challenge in 2017, as part of their 60th anniversary.
“We hope to build upon the pedometer challenge next year and are urging everybody to get moving and challenge themselves in aid of mouth cancer action.”
Moveit4smiles is an oral health initiative with a simple aim, to get moving and raise money in the fight against mouth cancer. They ask those who are passionate about raising awareness of oral health and wellbeing to get involved and help make a difference to the awareness of mouth cancer.
Nigel Carter OBE, CEO of the Oral Health Foundation, said: “The work that Christina and the Moveit4smiles team does is vital in helping to spread understanding of mouth cancer to the wider community.
“We are incredibly grateful to Moveit4smiles for their continued support of Mouth Cancer Action Month, their tireless effort in raising money and awareness of this disease is a valuable part of helping to reduce the impact of mouth cancer in the future.
“Over the past few years Moveit4smiles have helped inform hundreds of thousands of people across the UK and their outspoken support of gender neutral vaccinations helps to bring this important issue to the fore of the dental community.”
Mouth Cancer Action Month runs throughout November and is organised by the Oral Health Foundation and sponsored by Denplan. The charity campaign is aiming to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of mouth cancer, in order to get more cases caught early enough to make a difference to the chances of survival.
In the UK, mouth cancer cases have increased by 39 per cent in the last decade alone and by 92 per cent since the 1970s. Unfortunately, survival rates have not improved in the last 20 years either, that is why it is vitally important that everyone is more Mouthaware. Mouth cancer can affect anyone, we all need to be able to recognise and act on the early warning signs in order to improve early diagnosis and help save lives which otherwise could be lost to this terrible disease.