Beards for bowel cancer

If you visited the offices of leading Manchester law firm George Davies during December you may have spotted a rather large number of bearded faces and stubbly chins. You can be forgiven for thinking that some of the male staff had let themselves go; they had in fact stepped up to the ‘Decembeard’ challenge.

‘Decembeard’ involves participants resisting the razor throughout December and growing facial hair with the aim of raising money for charity – and in this case winning the title of “George Davies Solicitors LLP Best Beard 2011”!

There were 22 participants, including some experienced beard growers and some nervous first timers, who persevered with itchy faces and less than happy partners for a month. A few bowed out early, paying a ‘cave and shave’ penalty into the fundraising pot, but most managed to reach the end of the beardy face race.

Senior Partner, Anne Fairhurst, crowned Senior Systems Engineer Neil Kavanagh the owner of the best beard in the office. Anne presented Neil with a voucher for a cut throat shave and congratulated him on achieving a beard which she thought “most suited him and will be a shame not to see in the New Year!”.

The firm raised over £200 from its ‘Decembeard’ antics for the charity Beating Bowel Cancer and brought to a close a great 12 months of fundraising activity by the staff.