"Why I did a head and beard shave for Scope."

My daughter Elara was born 8 weeks early. The doctors and neonatal department soon discovered haemorrhages and believed this happened whilst she was still inside the womb. As time passed, it was apparent that she had hemiplegia which would affect all her limbs especially her right leg and this was an indicator that she did have cerebral palsy.

We’re active on social media and on Facebook groups for parents of children with cerebral palsy and we saw how hard it is for some parents to cope. While the challenges facing Elara are comparatively mild others aren’t so lucky and the condition can have a significant impact not just on the children but on their families as well.

Visiting a Scope sleep clinic

My wife visited one of Scope’s sleep clinics. We found it useful and being there confirmed we were doing the right things to get Elara to sleep and we now know what Elara needs. The service was easy to access and was only down the road from us. We gave them a call and luckily there was an available appointment on the day. These services are so vital to helping parents in the same position as us.

I was only meant to do a head shave

A friend of mine did a head shave for charity a few years back and I thought it would be a great event as people always want to see their friend or colleague do something daft. So, I wanted to help raise awareness and money for Scope.

My target was £250. I was only meant to do a head shave, but I mentioned in passing to one of my colleagues asking how much it would take to get sponsored to shave the beard off.

It then spiralled out of control in a good way, my colleague emailed out that we needed to get to £750 donations to get my beard shaved off. To my surprise this happened.

The support from my family and friends was brilliant especially the support from the office.

Just before the shave we were below £600 but, on the day, someone made a large anonymous donation to get to the £750 target.

My Chief Executive Officer came back from sabbatical and increased the donations to reach £1000. I was so overwhelmed by the generosity that everyone showed.

Aside from seeing the generous donations come through for Scope, the most enjoyable part was the shocked faces from people! I was getting lunch just after the shave and people who I worked with walked straight past me.

The support from Scope was great and it was nice to see that the team were keeping in touch to see progress and how things were going. A lot of places will leave you to do it and you won’t hear from them.

It’s such a good feeling knowing you can help

I would absolutely recommend organising an event like this or any type of event for charity. Personally, it’s such a good feeling knowing you can help and the effort you put in gets a tangible result, to invest in the services to help disabled people.

I’m a firm believer of paying it forward to help each other to make this world a better place. It is important to understand that everyone is bound together and can achieve great things.

My target was only £250 however through the generosity of colleagues, family and friends I was able to raise £1085.18 for Scope.

I wouldn’t do anything different, I think I really hit the nail on the head with this event. However, if I was to do it again, I would organise a different type of event. Something like a physical challenge.

Scope want to support more families like mine by funding services like Sleep Right, which is improving sleep for disabled children. Find out how you can get involved.