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Richard Hartley is a Consultant Radiologist at James Cook Hospital and he first grew a beard as an undergraduate medical student at Newcastle in the early 1980s.  Richard, like other health professionals, has had to shave off his facial hair to support the fight against COVID-19.  He will have to treat patients who have tested positive for the virus; this will become a common situation for those in the front-line teams of our hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.  In order to do this he needs to wear protective gear including a close fitting face mask which requires a clean shave to achieve a good seal.

Clean-shaven Richard is now our main photo for this page, though our photo gallery includes a picture of Richard as an 18 year old with the beginnings of a beard, and his current publicity shot from the James Cook website. To be honest it wasn’t much of a beard, but it has all had to go.  He had resisted all previous charity requests to shave the beard off, but now says “All of us in the NHS are committed to help protect the nation against COVID-19. I’ll shave for as long as necessary so that I can treat every patient who needs my help.” His bare-faced photograph features above.

Please support Richard and all the other health care staff who have shaved off their cherished beards in the line of duty by making a small donation to the South Tees Hospitals Charity via Just Giving - hence this page linked to the charity.

Richard Hartley is also a founder member of Stokesley Wine Society, and is well known in the town. Many of his friends in Stokesley will be pleased to see him without beard and support a worthwhile charity at the same time.

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