Brave the shave - Macmillan

[VivienneWestwoodsKnickers]

Macmillan is a fantastic organisation, but I'm a little concerned by the new fundraising campaign. Is encouraging people to shave their heads really going to raise more money than the advertising campaign costs?

It seems a big ask, rather than a 5k run, that ice bucket challenge, or an coffee morning.

Is it just me? I can see it excluding a lot of people (including me) who might otherwise have participated in something like less "extreme", so that's a loss of potential money there is it not?

I found this post by searching brave the shave .
There is a none too friendly debate going on on the brace the shave fb page .
I hate the campaign ,I think it is allowing attention seekers a great way to draw attention to them selfs .
The campaign is promoted with the idea of standing proud with those with cancer .
Shaving their heads does not give them the insight into how someone with cancer feels .nor does it make them brave .
Such a shame the charity didn't take on board more of what people with cancer think .
This will sound a bit odd but I feel like I 'earned ' my bald head ( and body) it was a price I had to pay ,( one of many ) going through the treatment .
Brave the shave is trivialising the hair loss.which is only a tiny part of treatment side effects .
There are very many other ways to give to charity.
And I cried when it came out after his death ,how much help George Michael had helped people .that is the way it should be done .looking for no glory for themselves ,just giving and helping people without fanfare and look at me ,aren't I good .

Thank you Arsenic for articulating exactly why I feel huge discomfort at this campaign.

I agree with pp who said give your money to a local hospice instead. My local hospice were amazing when my friend died of cancer.

Or give to Cancer Research who seem to find better treatments all the time (they've made a breakthrough that would have saved my friend).

Macmillan raise millions a year. They tend to fund a Macmillan Nurse post for a couple of years with the expectation that the hospital trust will take over the funding. They don't just fund nurses but Benefit advisors, Dietician support posts, cancer Information officers etc. A lot of the money is given to cancer sufferers in the form of grants ( although a lot of cancer sufferers are in hardship purely because of the inadequacies of the benefit system which does not help you in your time of need).

I just donated my hair to the little princess trust. No money or anything, just some 'well dones' on facebook that made me feel good about myself, but honestly I just figured there's no reason for it to go to waste. I hope I encouraged someone else to do the same.

Nikiforov
That is a great charity ,and a positive thing to do ,
My 5 year old dgd did the same ,and she was so happy that her hair might be turned into a wig for a poorly child .she understood the hair loss having seen mine last year .
And she was proud ,and got loads of praise from us .
But there is something different about the brave campaign ,and it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth .
I don't want to have people choosing to shave their heads ,enjoying the party atmosphere whilst doing it .the clapping and the 'well dones ,their cute buzz cut on their healthy head ,
Their faces and eyes shining with good health.all the while thinking that this is what losing your hair is like !
Because the reality for someone with chemo is very different .
I don't even need to outline some of the other side effects ,we all know what they are .
But I must add ,I didn't look pretty/cute/edgy with my bald head .
I looked like what I was .someone going through chemo .bald ,bloated,grey and Ill.

I lost some of my hair for a different reason in 2010 due to starting Epilim ( hair loss can be s side effect) & it was awful, it was the front of my hair so very noticeable, I ended up buying a wig just to look 'normal' and feel happy.

I stopped the Epilim & started another drug so the hair grew back but it was an awful experience & gave me some insight into how bad it must be for cancer sufferers to lose all their hair.

Shaving your head by choice is not a way to empathise with or understand those who lose their hair to cancer and it seems quite attention seeking to me, a bit like the no make up selfies.

I did the Brave The Shave last year not for any congratulations or anything, just that I wanted to fundraise when I couldn't afford to donate much myself. I was well known for my hair and its many colours, so if a lame gesture it was well meaning.

I did it for my granddad who passed away from lung cancer and my auntie who just beat it. My OH's mum also passed away from lung cancer last year and he loved it too. I can understand why it would upset people but I had nothing but support from everyone I know and really wouldn't have done it if I knew was upsetting anyone. I wish I could have donated the hair as well but unfortunately, my many previous colours meant it wasn't in the condition to do so. My sister is now growing out her hair to donate to the Little Princess Trust, though.

Maybe it's not the best way to fundraise or the best place to donate but at the end of the day, it's help where there might not be otherwise. I've seen Macmillan and other cancer charities do different fundraising campaigns with other objectives, like giving up drinking etc. I guess it's different strokes for different folks, whatever gets people to participate and donate?

Sosks
I am not speaking out to make anyone who has braved the shave feel bad .and I hope it hasn't come across like that .
It's the whole campaign that I think is wrong .badly thought out .
People have been shaving their heads for charity for years ,picture the hairy biker getting his hair and beard shaved .
But it has never before this campaign been in the name of solidarity with and standing proud alongside cancer sufferers.its the emulating a chemo patient that I find very distasteful .
Promoting loads of fb pictures of people before and after the shave ,all looking so happy .
Adverts all over the place with happy smiley people choosing to shave their heads.
Chemo hair loss isn't a choice ,neither is it painless .and it sure isn't a happy event .
It's the campaign I object to ,the marketing of the movement ,the thousands and thousands of people joining In because a cancer charity has made it seem a positive thing to do .
I think everyone has been mislead ,and maybe Macmillan should have done a bit more research into whether this was a good idea or not .
Maybe asked some of the very people the are claiming this is all for .

As a bald cancer patient currently recovering from a hysterectomy and waiting for chemo to start again, I too feel campaigns like this are patronising;and trivialise the pain and fear that people like me are going through.

If it highly insulting and offensive.

Twitterqueen
Going through it for the second time takes a certain kind of strength.
Best wishes to you

Thank you Gloria. I haven't finished the first lot yet . My wound isn't healing so I've got to wait a few more weeks for round 4 to start.

That last line should read 'I find it highly insulting and offensive.'

I hate it: shave your head to look like you've list hair through cancer treatment to raise money! What a laff! No insulting belittling of people with cancer having treatment there then

This seems to appeal to the more narcissistic members of society who want the attention and perceived praise they get from stunts such as this.

I do understand many of the points on here concerning the shaving of (what I presume to be) female heads. I don't think for a minute that shaving your head means you can empathise with someone going treatment for cancer.

However, I do think that some of the comments have been unkind. I have lovely dark brown, almost black (not a grey in sight yet) hair. I shave it on a number 0 (or 0.5 if I feel like having a bit of length on it). I do it because that's how I want to look. I am NOT trying to make it look like I've lost my hair through illness. And I'm no more narcissistic than anyone else who puts any sort of thought into their appearance.

It does turn heads and provoke comments though, which makes for an interesting life. Sometimes.

So we haven't all 'braved the shave' as such. For some of us, it's just the way things roll

My workplace is having a sponsored day in support of something called 'Coppafeel'- which is apparently about knowing your breasts. Even though it sounds like a sexual assault appeal

I've given hair to Little Princess without telling anyone about it.

I know one person who did a sponsored headshave and she is truly lovely but on the whole it seems pretty attention seeking and disrespectful to me. It'd be like doing a sponsored day in a wheelchair in aid of people who can't walk.

I know one person who did a sponsored headshave and she is truly lovely but on the whole it seems pretty attention seeking and disrespectful to me. It'd be like doing a sponsored day in a wheelchair in aid of people who can't walk.

I just wonder how many people in the Republic of South Yorkshire will take that view about me as I walk home this evening. Still ... WTF? It's their problem, not mine

I'm lovely (as a general rule), too

I don't understand being offended by someone doing a head shave for charity. I just don't like being encouraged by the charity to do it.

Are you bald PoorYorick? And suffering from cancer?

Stevie69 I'm confused and hope I haven't offended you as really didn't mean to. I certainly don't mean I would judge a shaved head woman in the street.

It's the 'countdown! I'm braving the shave, oooh had lots of fun picking out a new hat today' facebook type of thing I feel offended about.

A good friend of mine is pissed of at Macmillan saying it is a "brave" action that shows empathy and solidarity with cancer victims.

I don't see a fund raiser which involves sticking a needle in your chest for 6 months or purposefully vomiting for 5 days to raise money.

No, I am neither. But I don't see why people would be offended by someone raising money for a cancer charity by doing it. I know some people who shaved their heads in solidarity when someone lost her hair to chemo, so she wouldn't be the only bald one. She was very moved by it. Some of them also used it as an opportunity to raise money for a cancer charity. I really can't see what's offensive about this.

What would be offensive, I think, would be if a person shaved their head and then used it as an opportunity to talk about how they now understand what it must be like to have chemo. That's insane. But I don't know anyone who's done that, personally.

Shaving your head, or losing your hair, is a very very distressing thing to have to endure, which is why comparatively few people do it. I think there are lots of ways a charity could urge or guilt trip people into raising money, and I don't think this is one of them. But if someone chooses to, and makes it about the charity and not themselves, then I can't see the issue.

I don't like the MacMillan charity. Far too much spent on Admin and massive salaries for directors. I always give this particular charity a miss.

I think it's in very poor taste. People having chemo don't have a choice about losing hair and well people virtue signalling about how charitable they are by voluntarily shaving theirs off isn't going to help.

Just donate.

Good point HoneyDragon

And let's not forget losing fingernails and toenails either - what a fun fund-raiser that could be too.

PoorYorick come back and say that when you're in my position.

Trivialising, minimising and glamourising baldness when you are perfectly healthy is sick. I'm sorry that you are unable to understand this or to see why I'm offended.

(Note: I sincerely hope very much that you are never in my position.)