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Original poster

Brave the shave - Macmillan

163 replies

VivienneWestwoodsKnickers · 05/08/2017 16:12

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?

OP posts:
PoorYorick · 07/08/2017 19:08

I'm grateful for people sharing their experiences.

I haven't known anyone to do this recently. About ten years ago, a friend of my mother's was diagnosed with cancer and started chemo. When she began losing her hair, a very few close friends, maybe three or four, shaved their heads in what they, and she, saw as solidarity. They weren't attention seekers...they were unassuming people in their 50s who had probably barely heard of Facebook (as before, it was ten years ago). A couple of them also used it as an opportunity to raise money for a cancer charity.

The other time was a couple of years after that, so about eight years ago. A girl I knew, late 20s, had a friend who also had cancer. She decided to shave her head to raise money and, again, show solidarity. She's not an attention seeker either...her social media consists almost entirely of pictures of rescue animals and she spends most of her life in wellies, knee high in mud and animal muck. She raised several thousand dollars (Australian) and it seemed a good thing to do.

This is the sum total of my experience with it. Perhaps the climate has changed now for all sorts of reasons, but I promise that this handful of people were (are) all kind, well meaning, generous and intended nothing but good.

hiphopcat · 07/08/2017 19:10

Hope you or a loved one never get cancer as then you might find out just how desperately every penny given is needed.

@cantspell2

Yep, I knew someone would come out with that chestnut. Wink

Should I give to every single charity under the sun, just in case, I or anyone I know gets affected by said illness or condition?

Don't talk nonsense.

I stand by what I say - and it seems many people feel the same according to many replies on this thread. Cancer charities ask for - and receive - far too much money. Especially MacMillan.

So you can just pipe down with your passive aggressive guilt trips. Because they don't work on me.

PoorYorick · 07/08/2017 19:12

I don't think cancer charities can possibly receive too much money but I do think they could spend what they have more efficiently.

HelenaDove · 07/08/2017 19:17

My memories of the ice bucket challenge is ppl attempting to bully others into doing it.
I can see the same thing happening here. Chullying i call it.

A few years back i was queuing at a supermarket till when the woman in front of me with her young daughter was telling me and the till operator how her daughter had had all her hair cut off for charity. THEN she started going on and on about how EVERYONE should do it and if people didnt then they were selfish and vain. I was fuming and found it hard to keep my mouth shut. Simply donating is not good enough anymore on its own anymore it seems.

Thanks Thanks to all here who are ill and have no bloody choice but to lose their hair.

PoorYorick · 07/08/2017 19:18

A few years back i was queuing at a supermarket till when the woman in front of me with her young daughter was telling me and the till operator how her daughter had had all her hair cut off for charity. THEN she started going on and on about how EVERYONE should do it and if people didnt then they were selfish and vain.

Bloody hell, where do you find these people.

Crumbs1 · 07/08/2017 19:21

Undoubtedly Macmillan does excellent work but they have failed to listen to people who have suffered hair loss as a result of chemo. The very notion we want 'brave' people to show solidarity is quite frankly offensive. Why on earth would we want others to lose their hair? How would that help our feelings? How is it brave in any way shape or form? It's insensitive exhibitionism at best.

HelenaDove · 07/08/2017 19:21

Yorick the till operator and i just stared at her open mouthed as she walked away.

Typing this i now wonder whether it was actually her daughters idea or hers.

bakedbeansandtuna · 07/08/2017 19:35

IMO, the only opinions that Macmillan should be listening to are those from people who have experienced cancer/are experiencing it.

It is their feelings that must come under consideration. I personally find BTS highly distasteful but my opinion is secondary as someone who has not been affected.

Indeed, if people want to donate to cause, why don't they just do it regardless of whether someone is running a 10k/sponsored silence/ whatever it is? I see why these fundraising things exist but I don't think we all need to have to see someone 'do' something to donate to an issue we want to support.

Arsenic really couldn't have put it any better (I haven't been able to read all the posts, just wanted to comment)

BBATOT

PoorYorick · 07/08/2017 19:42

Indeed, if people want to donate to cause, why don't they just do it regardless of whether someone is running a 10k/sponsored silence/ whatever it is?

I understand what you're saying, but given the fact that most people who do a sponsored something do raise money for it, I have to assume that's money that the charities wouldn't otherwise get. I donate regularly but I'm often moved by what people are doing and their personal stories, and I'll dig a little deeper and give a bit more. So I can't really argue with it, especially when it's something like a fun run that doesn't cost anything significant to train for.

Boredwithmyname · 07/08/2017 20:05

I’ve done the coffee mornings (I do really like cake) but I told them to stop contacting me when they emailed me asking for money in my will. I hope they don’t do that to people with cancer.

bakedbeansandtuna · 07/08/2017 20:15

Yorick - totally - I'm not against them and you are totally right in what you are saying. I donate to THT because I know of the work they do and the help they offer to HIV positive people and their families - but I do this regardless (Saying that though - I donate because I know of what they do through someone I used to know, and how much they help). You are right, I'd probably never donate to say, I don't know, PDSA off the top of my head unless a friend was collecting for it. I do see your point too :)

bakedbeansandtuna · 07/08/2017 20:17

I guess the problem is really that these things can just crosse that line if the campaign is something that upsets/offends those directly affected by the illness.

Crumbs1 · 07/08/2017 21:16

I ask people whether they'd think it OK to do a sponsored hop for the Limbless association, a fundraising 'shake and supper' for the National Epilepsy Society or a 'wear a blindfold day' for the RNIB? They usually recoil in horror at the thought but still think brave the shave is 'just a bit of fun' and showing support in some way. No much makes me cross but this really does.

gloriawasright · 07/08/2017 21:28

Oh crumbs
That do make me lol .
I had been trying to come up with some other scenarios to make the comparison.
My feeble attempt was a sponsored silence in aid of mutism !
But yours are great ,I might have to borrow them .

gloriawasright · 07/08/2017 21:29

Did **

gloriawasright · 07/08/2017 21:41

In fact crumbs .do you mind if I do use your phrases elsewhere ?

Crumbs1 · 07/08/2017 21:44

If it's Facebook they might already be on there but go ahead spread the anti BtS message.

gloriawasright · 07/08/2017 21:49

It is facebook .
I haven't seen any yet , but I have only just started seeing the adverts .
I will be spreading the word .
Thank you 👍

wannabestressfree · 07/08/2017 21:54

Crumbs that made me chuckle too....unsurprisingly no one wants to mimic the other aspects of my illness. Shit in a bag and carry it round with you? No takers? Nope thought not.

Cantspell2 · 07/08/2017 22:04

Hip hop
You missed my point
From the office of national statistics 2016 figures

Cancer remained the most common broad cause of death (28.5% of all deaths registered); there was an increase of 1.1% of deaths to this cause compared with 2015.

Statistical you are more likely to suffer and in many cases die from cancer. Therefore it stands to reason the various cancer charities are campaigning hard for donations and get these donations as more of the population suffer from or have lost family to cancer. Survival rates are improving all the time but there is still along way to go. Each different cancer has different survival rates, treatment protocols and different research that is on going. Money given to research one cancer doesn't mean in benefits all.
I don't know the breakdown for charity given for the various different cancers and some do have a higher profile than others i.e. Breast cancer awareness has a higher profile than colon or other anal cancers. This is in part due to the campaigns they run and other outside factors.
You might think they get enough so want to give your money elsewhere which is your right. But it doesn't change the fact that in have a 1 in 4 chance of suffering cancer at sometime in your lifetime.

Crumbs1 · 07/08/2017 22:05

Wannabe I'm sorry about your stoma but made me laugh too.

Crumbs1 · 07/08/2017 22:09

Cantspell I also get cross at cancer charities using scare tactics rather than facts. We rarely hear the message that the overwhelming majority of women don't die of breast cancer but are actually cured completely. Of course for those who lose loved ones it's dreadful but that's not the reality for most women. Most of the increase cancer and death from cancer risk is about older women living long enough to develop cancer.

MaisyPops · 07/08/2017 22:10

I respect what Macmillain do and the work of their nurses.

Their method of fundraising with things like brave the shave annoys me. It is not brave to cut your hair off. It doesn't show solidarity. It trivialises hair loss due to treatment and reduces it to some before and after photo for instagram and a load of likes with comments 'ur so brave hun'.

I realise I'm probably sounding like an arse here but it does wind me up the way some charities are doing things like this to fundraise (e.g. go without alcohol for 30 days which anyone without an alcohol problem can do, grow a moustache which most adult men can do, shave your hair off). It's like social media philanthropy.

Whatever happened to donating to charity regularly and privatelh because it's a nice thing to do?

Cantspell2 · 07/08/2017 22:19

Crumbs breast cancer has something near a 80% 10 year survival rate which is in part due to their awareness campaign. Compared with colon cancer which has a lot lower profile and a much higher death rate. As a woman you are much more likely to die from colon cancer than breast but how many women wear a blue ribbon or even know about it?