A hair-raising NHS health and safety manager has had her head shaved – all in aid of Cancer Research UK.
Gemma Vaughan (aged 33), who works at Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital decided to ‘brave the shave’ after losing a family member to cancer and seeing two of her close friends diagnosed with the disease earlier this year.
The head shave was the second part of a charitable challenge for Gemma who had previously dyed her hair bright pink for the cause.
This latest event took place in the hair salon at Pilgrim Hospital and Gemma was cheered on by some friendly colleagues who were all on hand to wish her well.
“I do the Race for Life most years but for 2017 I wanted to do something really radical to help raise money to fight this evil disease”, said the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) employee.
“Step one was to dye it a random colour – my friends voted for pink so I kept it like that for six weeks.
“I dyed it back to my natural colour just before the shave so it would be in a better condition for wig making.”
Along with the £600 Gemma’s already raised for Cancer Research UK she’ll be donating her long hair to the Little Princess Trust, which provides free real hair wigs to young children who have lost their hair through illness.
After her head shave she also sold raffle tickets featuring prizes including perfume, tickets for family days out, gift vouchers, chocolates and gift sets.
“I’m not a girly girl but I loved my long hair and did all I could to keep it healthy with styling and products,” added Gemma.
“This is something really different for me – but it’s for a brilliant cause so it’s more than worth it.”
If you’d like to sponsor Gemma you can still by clicking the following link – https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Gemma-Vaughan2016
Click here for a short video of the head shave on the ULHT YouTube channel – https://youtu.be/6yihWoaI9ww