Hair today...gone tomorrow for Refuge
A Drogheda couple has matching hair-dos this week, after they both shaved their heads for charity.
Eithne Tobin and her husband Michael Hinshelwood did the deed to raise valuable funds for the Drogheda Women and Children’s Refuge, so far reaping an amazing €1,400.
But the fun follicle fundraiser was more of a sacrifice to Michael than Eithne, as he has always tried to keep his locks somewhat flowing!
“Michael used to have long hair and it’s been about 15 years since he had it short, so he was more nervous than me about shaving it off,” says Eithne with a laugh. “He did mine first, which gave him the chance to chicken out, but thankfully he went ahead and didn’t leave me on my own!”
The couple both knew they wanted to do something whilst working from home in lockdown, and as they live near to the refuge, it was the obvious choice.
“The safe house is literally around the corner and as I pass it every day, I was thinking of the work they do, now more than ever. and it can sometimes go under the radar,” says Eithne, who normally commutes to Dublin. “I was watching a programme recently that said women were not able to make the emergency calls as easily during challenging times of isolation and fear, so I thought I would try and show some support and set a target of €500.”
How they were going to raise the money was much more last minute!
“I’ve never had my head shaved before and we only decided the day we set up the GoFundMe page,” she explains. “In fact, I only realised all we had in the house was Mick’s beard trimmer, so had to quickly borrow something from a friend or we could have been there a while and had stripes like a lawn!”
Eithne hails from Blackrock in Dundalk, and Michael is an architect originally from Scotland, so say a huge thank you to their adopted town for being such a generous community.
The page is still open for another month and I know there is a lot going on, but I hope people will consider giving to such a great cause, and make my new low maintanance hair worth the effort,” adds Eithne.
GoFundMe Shaving for Safety.