Above: Sophie pre-shave. "I liked my hair!"
Professor Sophie Jackson shaved off her hair on 29 June in memory of a colleague who died of cancer over lockdown.
Sophie says: “My friend and colleague Guy Poland showed such enormous bravery during his fight with cancer. He once told me that he did not want to be defined by his cancer, and he was not. I was aware he had a terminal diagnosis, and I saw how bravely he fought the disease, hardly ever mentioning it and never complaining.”
Guy died at the beginning of March, aged just 39, and Sophie wished to do something in his honour. “I wanted to do something just a tiny bit brave to honour and remember him,” she says.
Sophie 'braved the shave" to commemorate her colleague and friend Guy Poland, and raise funds for MacMillan.
Sophie chose to shave her hair because she knew that would be difficult for her. “I like my hair, it’s one of my few features that I would not change, so I was taking myself well out of my comfort zone to do this. However, being brave enough to shave my hair off is just nothing compared to the bravery Guy showed.”
Sophie's shave raised £1785 for MacMillan Cancer Support, much higher than her £1000 target. “More than 60 people contributed, which was way beyond my expectations,” she says wonderingly. Many people from the department contributed and left messages of goodwill for Sophie, including the following:
“Fabulously brave!” “Well done, Sophie. Respect!” “Braver than me.” “Go for it Sophie!”
And quite aptly: “Don’t forget the sunscreen after!”
Instead of feeling embarrassed as you might expect, Sophie now says: “It felt quite liberating really. It’s just knowing that you can push yourself out of your comfort zone if you really want to.”
Sophie walks her dog around her village, and she says she got quite a few comments from friends and neighbours who initially didn’t recognise her, but knew her dog. “I had lots of quips from neighbours,” she says, “but it was all done in very good spirits.”
In fact, now that her hair has grown out a little, friends have commented on how well it suits her. “Now it’s grown a little bit, so I might keep it short for awhile,” she says. Besides, shaving her hair did have one major advantage: “My morning routine has become much simpler!”