Four NHS doctors are growing moustaches to raise money for the NHS and highlight the sterling work done by “often unappreciated” healthcare staff including porters and healthcare assistants.

Royal Free Hospital anaesthetist Dr Sam Curtis, who lives in Muswell Hill, is one of the quartet set to welcome something bushy to his upper lip as part of the NHS Hairy Heroes campaign.

He told this newspaper: “Myself and three of my very close friends all decided we wanted to do our best to raise as much money as possible.”

“We want the campaign to shed some light on all of the other people in the NHS – admin staff, nurses, paramedics – who don’t always get the recognition they deserve.

“We just thought we would grow our moustaches, and share how that goes along with the stories of people we know.”

So far, the NHS Hairy Heroes have raised over £6,000, see justgiving.com/fundraising/nhshairyheroes to help them towards their £10,000 target. The team will post the inspiring stories of NHS staff on their instragram page at @nhshairyheroes