G'day all,

So I want to support a mate, whose testimonial is below, but it seems I have a bit of a head start. The idea is that over June, July, August you commit to growing a beard and, in return, people donate money to see you shave it off. As my photo attests it's pretty hard to start growing a beard when you already have one! 

In speaking to Toby I told him that if he was ok with it, I'll keep growing mine for the next three months and, to support him, come the end of August I'm going to shave off my beard but...

...only if I can raise $7000.

That may seem a large amount but the goal is to raise as much as possible to support those parents and their extended families as they endure the unimaginable.

I am fortunate to have healthy children and I cannot even begin to imagine what Toby and Jacqui, and so many other parents go through. 

I know there are some people out there that would love to see the beard gone (I am not one of them!) but come August you can ensure it comes off by donating to this important, though sadly rarely talked about cause.

I'll leave the most important words to Toby...

G’Day everyone for those who don’t know my back story.

I'm a bereaved father of two, my sons Oliver and Liam were tragically taken from this world and born sleeping, Oliver on 8/7/18 and Liam on 26/4/19.

Through the heartbreak and devastation of losing our two beautiful boys bears of hope and beards of hope have been there in support for us since day one. There hasn’t been a minute where they have ever asked for anything in return or even flinched whenever we have reached out to them. I guess this is my way of giving back to them and involving myself with such a beautiful and unique organisation. I don’t want to see any families go through what we have been through but reality is there will be families and the least we can do is support bears of hope and beards of hope so that they can continue to work with families in need.

I’ve made this a team event so anybody wanting to join and take part in growing their beards from 1st of June till 31st of August please let me know and join the team! Three months of beard growing then one hell of a shave off party at our place when it’s done and dusted!

Any donations big or small will go a long way to raising our goal of $1500 so a big thank you to anybody who contributes it means the world not only to me but to families right across the country who are in the same position.

Big love always

Tobes