READER LETTER: Harness the power of the beard in December

We're calling on your readers to help us to harness the power of the beard to take on bowel cancer this Christmas.

If you’re willing to go grizzly throughout December, dye or decorate your existing face fur or hold a ‘beardy’ event in the office or local area over the festive period, then please join our hairy band of brothers taking on bowel cancer beard by beard.

Beating Bowel Cancer’s Decembeard campaign asks men to grow or decorate their beard to raise funds for the charity. This will help us to support bowel cancer patients and to raise awareness of the disease, its symptoms and the need for early diagnosis.

It’s a fun, festive campaign in aid of a serious cause. Bowel cancer is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer. Each year in the UK, more than 40,000 people are diagnosed with the disease - and 16,000 each year die from it. But it doesn’t have to be that way because 90 per cent of those diagnosed at an early stage can be successfully treated.

Over the last five years thousands of you have supported the campaign and we are so grateful to you. The awareness it has raised has undoubtedly saved lives and the funds raised for the charity have enabled us to provide support services to a great many bowel cancer patients and their families.

But thousands more people are diagnosed each year, so the charity is once again asking local men to become a Decembeard champion to help us to continue to take on bowel cancer.

Please sign up today at Decembeard.org or check it out at on twitter @decembeard_uk – and prepare to ditch your razor over the festive season.

Charlotte Dawson

Head nurse for Beating

Bowel Cancer’s

helpline

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