A Kojak Moment

OK, so what’s this “Shaving my Head for St. Baldrick’s” thingy that I’ve been on about in my New Year’s Not Resolution posts?

Shaving my head? Sounds like a trip, right? Well, if you’ll forgive me, I’m going to get serious for a bit

The St. Baldrick’s Foundation (www.stbaldricks.org) is a volunteer driven charity that funds research to find cures for childhood cancers. According to their web site, 160,000 children are diagnosed with cancer worldwide each year. One every 3 1/2 minutes. Not only that, Cancer is the number one disease killer of children in the U.S. and Canada.

Now I’ve been blessed in that so far at least, no child I know personally has been stricken with cancer. However, in recent years we’ve had more than enough of it in our family. My Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer but she beat it. Stomach cancer took my Dad in 2010. My father-in-law beat bladder cancer a few years ago but is now fighting prostate cancer.

How messed up is that?

Cancer is a hateful, cowardly disease and frankly, I’m fucking sick of it.

Which is why I have so much admiration for people like The St. Baldrick’s Foundation and the work they do to help efforts to beat it once and for all. If you haven't already, take a look at the web site and see some of their success stories.

Right, I’ll climb off my soapbox now and explain about the head shaving stuff.

Each year, round about St. Patrick’s day, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation coordinates head shaving events at locations around the globe; more than a thousand in 2011. Over 45,000 people (more than 5,000 of them women) volunteered to have their heads shaved allowing the Foundation to award over $21 million in grants to help fight childhood cancer.

One of the volunteers was my mate Robert de Jong and it’s him wot deserves the credit for inspiring me to step up and do the deed this year.

It’s not going to be easy. My head hasn’t been shaved down to the wood since I was about 7 and who knows what we’re going to find under there. Tattoos, shopping lists, old girlfriends' phone numbers, there could be anything. And while they may have more silver highlights than I care to notice, I am somewhat attached to my flowing locks. I mean, I am pretty darned gorgeous.

So what I'm saying is, I’m more than a bit scared.

But what the hey. I've looked like a dork before, I can do it again. And who knows, maybe I'll look badass. (Yeah, right). Still, if me walking round looking like a billiard ball for a few weeks can help some kid with cancer, well then it’s not that big a price to pay now is it?

And if you wanted to help by making a donation, I’d be very, very, very grateful.

www.stbaldricks.org/participants/andrewsmith

Note: I can't get the links to work tonight for some reason, so please just copy and paste.