Supporters raise a glass to Burnley Real Ale fan on target to raise £2,000 in 'Movember' charity challenge

And Josh Stevenson, along with five of his friends, has already raised the £1,375, just 17 days into the Movember challenge which involves each of them growing a moustache throughout the month of November.

Josh (28), who used to work as assistant manager at Ighten Leigh Social Club on Padiham Road in Burnley, said:

"During the first lockdown in March I started to review beers online via Instagram. Slowly but surely my page grew and in that time I met some great people within the Craft Beer Community.

"Whilst the first lockdown was hard on everyone, it became evident to me that it was especially hard for others.

"After seeing headlines in the TV news, newspapers, social media and hearing about things that were happening in my hometown I thought why not use my platform for good?"

A student at the former Hameldon Community College and Burnley College, at the end of July Josh asked five friends if they would like to join forces in raising awareness and funds for the Movember Foundation which focuses on all aspects of men's health including mental health, suicide prevention and testicular and prostate cancer.

Josh and his pals, Andy Norman from Manchester, Kris Lovegreen, who lives in Newcastle, Steven Preston of Lincolnshire, Bradford based Declan Keeble and Kevin Ell of Birmingham are not only appealing for sponsorship they have gone a step further by persuading 20 breweries to donate their beer and merchandise worth a whopping £400 for a raffle and competition.

The raffle is a minimum £3 donation and each pound counts as one virtual raffle ticket/ entry into the raffle. All winners will be chosen by a random generator.

Along with this the lads are giving away a free case of beer to the person who grows the best moustache!

Their campaign name on Instagram is #Movembeer and they have also managed to get a ‘Mr T' lookalike, who appeared on Britain's Got Talent, to shoot a promotional video for them.

Josh now works for Matt Kayley at Evergreen Gardening and Landscaping services. He is engaged to fiancee Lydia Chadwick and they are due to tie the knot in September, 2022.

Josh said: "We are raising around £100 a day at the moment which is just amazing."