Sam sacrifices beloved beard
A decorated All Black used to receiving the plaudits is heaping praise on the selfless actions of his terminally ill friend.
Kevin ‘‘Chalky’’ Carr helped shave All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock’s head and beard in Christchurch yesterday to raise another $15,000 for a 7-year-old girl he met only two months ago.
To Carr, a former All Blacks logistics manager who has advanced cancer, it was ‘‘payback’’ for Whitelock shaving his and his two boys’ heads in September and a last chance to secure his legacy through philanthropy.
‘‘This, hopefully, will make the last cut – no pun intended,’’ he said.
Carr was initially diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June
2016. The disease’s return prompted the establishment of the Chalky Carr Trust to raise $100,000 for Isla Lunn, whose mother Kellie died of breast cancer.
Now the trust hopes to expand into a second chapter and fund
$60,000 worth of new chemotherapy seats – ‘‘Chalky’s chairs’’ – for Christchurch Hospital’s oncology department.
Chief executive Brett Gamble said the trust wanted to ‘‘endure and have chapter after chapter’’ helping cancer sufferers and and the families they left behind.
‘‘Chalky is a big picture guy and he wanted to continue this legacy. The most remarkable thing is you have got Chalky going through the worst thing imaginable and he’s thinking about other people.’’
Whitelock said he was happy to donate his hair and be cleanshaven for the the first time in two years to aid the cause.
His concerns that it might not regrow, or that he would be unrecognisable to infant son Fred, were outweighed by the desire to match Carr’s generosity.
‘‘The beauty about that is that Chalky’s just being his usual self.’’
Carr, looking more gaunt than past appearances, including a 2014 New Zealand Bravery Medal ceremony for his 12-hour effort to rescue survivors of the CTV building collapse, dismissed the praise heaped on him.
‘‘I would expect anyone in my circumstances to do what I have done,’’ he said.
‘‘You have got to be able to look beyond your own means and put yourself out there to make some good in this world.’’
‘‘Chalky . . . wanted to continue this legacy.’’
Chalky Carr Trust chief executive Brett Gamble