TWO youngsters from Melksham have had their heads shaved raising over £1,500 for Cancer Research in the process.
Samuel Doddington who is just nine years old and attends Forest & Sandridge Primary School raised £1,020 for the charity whilst Matty Tanner, a year 10 pupil from Melksham Oak had the chop raising £517.51 in the process.
Samuel had his head shaved at G.Hatto barber shop with his father showing support by joining in too. Samuel said, “My Bampa (grandfather) died last year of cancer and I miss him so much every day. Since then, I’ve pestered my mum into arranging the head shave to raise money and help find a cure for cancer. We all know someone who has, or is suffering with this horrible disease and I don’t want people to feel as sad as I did when my grandfather died.”
Samuel was cheered on by family and friends through the head shave and collection push including Samuel’s mum Pam Doddington who was full of support for what her son and husband had done. She said, “Samuel was so determined to do this to help raise money that I couldn’t stand in his way. The support from friends has been amazing and everybody thinks he is very brave.”
Marie Bucknell-Smith from the Cancer Research Melksham branch said, “On behalf of Cancer Research UK, we would like to thank Samuel for raising such an amazing amount of money for our charity. We are very grateful and appreciative of all of his effort and he is truly an inspiration to young people everywhere.
“The money Samuel raised would cover training for a week for one of our PhD students at Cancer Research UK as well as training for a team of nurses to learn about communication and providing a confidential service to people with concerns about cancer.”
Teenager, Matty Tanner decided to raise the money as he wanted to contribute to a great cause and was well known at school for his hair which he hadn’t cut since June 2012. For this reason, he chose to have a head shave to raise money for the charity.
The year 10 pupil who attends Melksham Oak said, “It feels strange not having my hair, but I am really glad I did it. I want to say thank you to everyone who has helped, supported and sponsored me. I am pleased with the amount raised as I only targeted £100 to begin with”
Matty’s friend Sam Robinson who is also in year 10 said, “I couldn’t belive it when I heard Matty was going to have his hair shaved off. He loves his hair so it will be strange to see him without it. We are proud of what he has done and think it’s really good.”
The head shave took place at the barber shop on Union Street with barber Shaun Heathcote having the honour of shaving Matty’s hair off. He said, “It’s amazing what he has done. Fair play to him, it is something I couldn’t do and he has raised a lot of money, so well done to him!”
