Phil Doyle is shaving off his 50-year-old beard to raise money in memory of his late wife Ramona and young son Phelim, who suffered from Muscular Dystrophy.

Co Down man Phil Doyle has vowed to get lippy, literally, to raise money for two charities close to his heart.

Phil is shaving off his 50-year-old beard at Back from the Booley festival in August and has come clean about why the beard was a necessity in the first place.

“To be honest, 50 years ago, I didn’t have much sense,” he began. “Really, I am capitalising on past mistakes to help out local charity Life and Time and Muscular Dystrophy UK.

“My brother John and I restored an old tractor engine in ’74 and we were towing it, trying to get it started. I was on the tractor, trying to jumpstart it, and I was busy spraying Easy Start, which is a richer fuel than diesel, into the fuel intake.”

“It was like rocket fuel and, of course, I used too much. The engine revolutions were so high, the flywheel and housing broke and flew apart. They exploded into hundreds of pieces actually. It was like somebody cut the tractor in two with a knife. They found bits of the engine 144 yards away. A chunk of the flywheel came away and hit my lip going past. I was thrown over the hedge by the force of the blast.”

Phil recounted his trip to hospital, where the nursing staff asked if he had been in a bomb. He replied “Well, it was an explosion, but no, not a bomb.”

The long and short of it was that Phil fared no worse than a broken front tooth and three or four stitches in his upper lip.

“I couldn’t shave the lip,” he said. “But I wasn’t going to grow a mustache. I said ‘I’ll grow the whole beard”. And that is what he did, in 1974. “The truth is, I was lucky to be alive”.

Interestingly, the temporary filling he got from the dentist also lasted almost 50 years. It did the job right up until a few years ago, when it too fell to pieces and was replaced with an implant.

Phil’s Big Shave - in memory of his late wife Ramona and their young son Phelim, who suffered from Muscular Dystrophy - will take place on Sunday 25th August at Back from the Booley field day at Doran’s.

He is appealing for people to support his efforts by donating to the charities so close to his heart and Ramona's while she was alive.

Phil added: "By fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy UK, I’m helping to fund world-class research into effective treatments, and life changing support for the 110,000 people in the UK living with a muscle-wasting condition.

"Life and Time is a wonderful local charity in south Down that provides palliative care for the terminally ill in their own homes. It's making such a difference in our area.

All donations and support are greatly appreciated. Thank you!"