OICR participates in Terry Fox Foundation's Great Canadian Head Shave
Dr. Tom Hudson, President and Scientific Director of OICR (centre) and Portal Editor Steve Durant (right) get their heads shaved as Dr. Ron Heslegrave, Chair of OCREB (left) awaits his turn.
(CPimages/S.Lake)
Earlier this year, the Terry Fox Foundation sent out a call for a different kind of volunteer: they were looking for people who work in Toronto’s research community to take on members of the Canadian Forces in a “head shaving battle” in support of cancer research.
Three people took them up on the offer: Dr. Tom Hudson, President and Scientific Director of OICR; Dr. Ron Heslegrave, Chair of the Ontario Cancer Research Ethics Board (OCREB); and me, a communications officer at OICR and editor of this newsletter.
I can only speak for myself, but it was pretty easy to sign up and prepare for the head-shave. The shaving itself wouldn’t require any effort on my part, and the Terry Fox Foundation’s website makes it very easy to raise pledges. As the date approached, I let my hair grow a bit longer than normal – no sense in paying for a haircut when the Terry Fox Foundation had offered to cut it all off for free! But for the most part, I never thought too much about what it would feel like when it was all gone.
The next thing I knew, I was sitting on a makeshift stage at Brookfield Place in downtown Toronto. Clippers were buzzing next to my head and people were starting to gather around to watch the ceremonies.
As the shaving began, the emcee, reporter Dwight Duncan, surprised me with an announcement that we’d be going live in three minutes on the Citytv lunchtime newscast. I knew there would be media at the event, and that Mr. Duncan had signed on as the host, but I’d never put two and two together: for better or worse, the whole city was going to get to see my bare head before I got a chance to!
As Tom Hudson explained the importance of supporting cancer research to the lunchtime crowd at Brookfield Place and all the viewers in TV-land, the clippers kept buzzing as my hair fell to the floor. A couple minutes later, it was all done.
“Are you sure it’s all gone?” I asked.
It was, but I barely felt any difference. I’d never shaved my head or even cut my hair very short so I didn’t know what to expect – but luckily my head didn’t feel cool or itchy or any of the other things people had warned me about before the event.
Later, a young Terry Fox Foundation volunteer gave a moving speech about his own childhood battle with cancer. Now a healthy 16-year-old, his speech – and his very presence – reminded us that research has created many new, effective treatments for cancers that were once thought to be incurable.
Then it was time for the soldiers to step up. Leaders and members of HMSC Vanguard, a local navy cadet unit, recruited about a dozen shavees. The soldiers didn’t have as much hair to lose as some of the other participants, but it was great to see their group, including some cadets in their early teens, coming together to support cancer research.
As I walked off the stage, a photographer showed me a photo of my new look. It was strange, but it actually looked better than expected.
Back at the office after the event, I found out the OICR team had raised about $4,000 for cancer research. Not a bad return for sitting in a chair for ten minutes!
Three weeks later, my head is completely covered with hair. In a few more weeks, it will grow out to its normal length and for all intents and purposes, I’ll have completely forgotten it was ever gone.
At least until next year.
