I've had my dreads for 8 years, and have been growing them for around a decade now. The dreads have taken a great deal of perseverence to grow, but the Facebook page of the RSPCA Preston made me want to do something for them.

Naomi (my wife) and I have a cat called Tabby. We took her in when her owner (or is it ownee when you have a cat? :D) moved to Columbia around 4 years ago, otherwise we weren't sure where she would have ended up. We've never looked back. She's an awesome cat who is greatly loved. Other animals aren't so lucky, which is why there are great places like the RSPCA Preston Branch.

The RSPCA Preston Branch don't get a great deal of funding from the national RSPCA, so they rely greatly on support from the community and from volunteers.

They do great work for abandoned, neglected and abused animals, and a huge part (to me) is that they pride themselves on having a non-destruction policy.

It's taken me about two months to make this decision (after all, I've had my dreads for nearly a third of my life!), but I have decided to shave them off, and I'm hoping I get a decent contribution together for the staff (and the guests) at the RSPCA Preston Branch. 

Their costs are considerable:

"The RSPCA Preston & District Branch is a self funding independent charity. Its costs us an average of £20,000 per month to run and whilst we get some funding from the National RSPCA we rely heavily on public donations and the generosity of the community to keep the doors of our animal centre open."

I'm not going to put a fund-raising target as such. Any donations would be gladly received, but to put it in a little context, I have exactly 39 individual dreadlocks, and I'm hoping for around £20 per dread. Anything you guys could give would be amazing though.

I'll update this as I go as well, I'm already nervous about doing it, but I keep reminding myself that this is for a really good cause! :)

 FYI - the deed will be done on Saturday 5/4/2014! :)