A BRAVE elderly woman’s bald move to shave her hair off and tattoo the back of her head has raised £1,200 for The MS Society.
Sylvia Day, of The Parklands, has left a permanent reminder on the hearts of her family and friends with her inspirational efforts for the cause.
The 73-year-old said she and her husband Norman had been strong supporters of the charity for the last 15 years – Norman is a treasurer while Sylvia bakes cakes for various fund-raising and awareness events.
The mother-of-two added it all began at a garden party and she was speaking to her neighbour who suffers from MS and said she wanted to do something for the charity before she got too old.
Sylvia, who was a nurse for 46 years before she retired, said she had quite a lot of experience with MS sufferers so it was something close to her heart.
“As a joke at the very start I said I would only shave it off if I got £1,000 – I never thought I would get there but my friends rallied around saying they would do it,” she added.
“I was a bit nervous not having any hair.
“I also had a tattoo saying ‘The MS Trust’ it was painful but just finished off the challenge.
“After I had it done and looked in the mirror I just said oh my god I look like my brother.
“My two grandsons were there and they just thought nana was cool.
“My husband found it strange initially – he just kept saying oh my god I have a bald wife but it is all in good humour and he has been brilliant supporting me through out.”
Sylvia said at first she found her new hair cut a bit strange but she got used to it after a while.
She added she started to really get excited when donations began to roll in as they made it all worth it.
She said: “I have never done anything like it before but I would like to encourage other people to do it.”
She added the MS Trust faced a lot of competition from more higher profile charities so she wanted to help raise its profile in a bid to get the cause more cash.
Visit www.justgiving.com/Jane-Mchugh1/ to support Sylvia’s cause.
After the head shave. (s)
