Hi! 

I'll start by thanking you kindly for taking the time to visit my page.

What's this all about? I've refrained from cutting my hair since COVID19 began in a bid to grow a mess, and then as the title suggests, shave and razor said mess down to the skin, with the idea to use the event to raise awareness of a special cause close to home, raise some money for that cause, and stop torturing my wife with this birds nest that sits on my head!

What was my inspiration? A close friend has battled a very rare form of cancer over the past few years. They are an absolute inspiration and are about as brave as they come, facing the battle of their life with more character than I will ever have. Feeling inspired by their infectious enthusiasm for life and people, I said to myself, what can I do to help.

Why the hair, dude? As we know, vicious cancer treatments that patients have to endure have many, many brutal, negative side effects - hair loss being one of the most obvious to an outsider. This had me thinking as, being a ginger person, through mostly negative experiences, and some good, I have attached a lot of my indentity to my hair. This extends out to most of my family, friends and colleagues who know me well, playfully nicknaming me names such as "Johnny Bravo", "Rick Astley" and "Jedward" to name a few - of which are all most definitely received positively as compliments of course! Especially Rick Astley - LEGEND!

In cutting off my hair completely and losing that external identity, I felt I could bring the most attention from those that know me, and direct all that attention to a truly fantastic cause and help that cause with a (hopefully sizeable) donation.

If I'm able to achieve that, the pain I've apparently subjected my wife to through the entirety of lockdown, having just this growing birds nest to look at, and in turn the pain she's dished out in the form of official complaints and threats of divorce (jokes of course), would have all been worthwhile doing!

Why The Ben Saunders Foundation? My close friend shared the same ward, and became friends with Ben Saunders last year. Whilst Ben was enduring his battle with cancer, he began his own foundation, bringing great awareness throughout Bath and beyond, in support of teenagers and young adults with cancer. Checkout the foundation website and you can immediately see how amazing an impact this guy had, and what money they've managed to raise. Unfortunately, Ben passed away last year.

TL;DR? This ginger idiot is shaving his dome to raise money for an amazing and inspirational foundation close to home.

For further inspiration, my close friend Verity and her co. star Liv host an honest, genuine, funny, but real podcast on their experiences dealing with cancer at such a young age. It's quite the eye-opener and definitely worth the listen/watch:

https://www.instagram.com/cantstomachthis/?igshid=xgaxgytpgb3v

https://www.facebook.com/cantstomachthis/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgyGNOsGTxRFvCCmMzR_KVA

https://open.spotify.com/show/5tgWvxYcbyr16R9VK4ES9f?si=vBs2nT8wScGxmzhTTjiu4A