After three years of growing his beard – and decades of facial hair – Jack in the box director Scott Robinson is shaving it all off to raise $10,000 for the Australian Cancer Research Foundation in memory of his mum.
Sadly, Mr Robinson’s mum Dawn lost her battle with secondary liver cancer on June 23, she never quite like his beard as much as Mr Robinson, so he has decided to shave it all off to raise money for cancer research.
“I have let the beard grow pretty wild, my mum would have called it feral,” he said.
Before Dawn’s final moments, Mr Robinson considered shaving his beard but did not feel it was appropriate at the time.
“Instead I thought if this funny piece of facial hair might actually be able to do some good, how amazing would that be,” he said.
“If some type of shave event might be able to raise a little bit of money towards trying to find a cure to this insidious disease and prevent someone else feeling the pain I was going through, that would probably be a good thing.
“If we could stop something like cancer in its many varied forms – to stop it taking away our loved ones – that would be a nice thing.”
Mr Robinson has setup a My Cause Page and called his campaign ‘Facing the Dawn’ because his mum had not seen his face for a while.
“I have to face up to showing my mum my face again, apparently she said there was a delightful, young-looking man beneath there” he said.
“It is a beard but its importance has shifted for me, it is now an opportunity to do something that is positive and can get something out of such a horrific situation that would make my mum proud.
“These moments bring you a sense of reality about what is really important in life and what is not, and my beard is not important, that has become clear to me.”
So far Mr Robinson has raised more than $4000 in two weeks and will keep going until he reaches his goal of $10,000 before going under the razor.
“That is a pretty good indication that people want to see my beard come off, or maybe they like the idea of the cause and probably some people who felt the same way about Dawn as we do.
Mr Robinson has been running his business in Busselton for 17 years and Dawn was very much part of that journey, being the person people saw when they walked through the door.
“She was infectious with her laugh and her smile and personality, she had a lot of love to give and gave her heart to people,” he said.
“This was very much about being as somewhat selfless as she was, not only for me but my family and everyone that engaged with it to try and find something positive out of what is a pretty sad situation.”
“It is pretty simple, lose the beard, raise 10 grand and try to save some lives.”
If you would like to help Mr Robinson raise $10,000 for cancer research go to mycause.com.au/page/152852/facing-the-dawn.