The reason for this fundraiser now
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a consequentially detrimental impact on many areas of life and activity.
In January 2020 I had my last haircut and because of the need to keep a distance from people for much of 2020 and 2021 I decided not visit my hairdresser/barber but instead wait until the end of the pandemic and then have it cut as part of a fundraiser.
The pandemic officially didn’t end until May 5th 2023. One of the charities I want to fundraise for is Movember which focuses its fundraising in the November of each year – hence waiting until now.
So during starting 25th November and running to the end of December 2023 I am fundraising for two contexts affected by the pandemic. Take you choice as to which one you'd like to support:
1. Men’s health: Movember
It is understood as a generalisation, that men as a population go for check-ups and seek diagnostic help for their health issues much later than women. Men are dying on average 4.5 years earlier than women, and for largely preventable reasons. Covid-19 may have exacerbated the situation with Prostate Cancer UK reporting that as a result of the pandemic, 14,000 men in the UK were living with undiagnosed prostate cancer.
Movember is a global men’s health charity with a particular focus on mental health, prostate cancer and testicular cancer.
As the Movember website says:
"We’re taking them all on. Mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer – we’re taking them all on. Since 2003, Movember has funded more than 1,250 men’s health projects around the world, challenging the status quo, shaking up men’s health research and transforming the way health services reach and support men."
2. BOOKS Plus Cardiff: charitable bookshop at the University Hospital of Wales
The charity running the BOOKS Plus shops seeks to enhance the caring environment for patients, visitors and staff through the establishment and running of attractive, encouraging and caring retail outlets of Christian and general interest books, and related goods.
BOOKS Plus in Cardiff was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in a delayed relocation from Unit 6 to 8 and furthermore the shop being kept closed for a year longer than all the other traders at the concourse.
BOOKS Plus Cardiff has been able to survive this period and reestablish itself through careful use of its reserves as well as receiving some very generous individual donations. The shop will celebrate its 25th anniversary in June 2024. In order to ensure the shop can operate and serve the hospital for the rest of the decade on a sound footing the charity is fundraising to replenish its reserves.
How will the fundraiser proceed and what has hair got to do with it?
You can chose which charity you would like to support and I have online giving pages for both:
You will be sponsoring me to cut my hair back to some kind of normality for one of the two good causes. During the weekend immediately after the end of November I will shave half of my head – this will be the Movember part. Then a week later I will shave the remaining half of my head on 9th December, hoping that the embarrasing spectacle will have helped the two fundraising causes.
The idea is that following the fundraiser:
- I will be back to the more easily managed “short back and sides” hair style I was more accustomed to pre-pandemic and
- two charities will have benefited significantly.
