A JURBY man said goodbye to a year’s worth of facial hair, when his fundraising beard finally got the chop at Ayre United AFC’s Andreas base.
William Quayle, 23, took a bet with a friend at the end of 2011 that he couldn’t go 12 months without shaving, pledging £1 for every day of grooming abstinence.
Mr Quayle accepted the challenge, and that same friend had to cough up £366 at the big shave.
As momentum and support grew along with the beard, gardener Will decided to use the bet to raise money for Craig’s Heartstrong Foundation and Ayre United, the club he plays for in the combination league.
How much of a burden was the beard?
‘I got to about April, and I started looking at it in the mirror,’ said Will.
‘It was my brother’s wedding in June, and I was wondering whether I wanted it in the photographs.
‘He told me to shave it off, which is probably why I decided to keep it and see through the year!’
Donations are still coming in, and while he’s glad to have contributed something to the charity and the club, Will says at times the beard proved ‘a complete nightmare’, serving as an attraction for total strangers to his face.
‘People would try and swing off it on nights out,’ he recalled.
‘And I went to a music festival in Scotland, everybody kept calling me Jesus!’
Will said it was pretty nerve-racking having the shave in front of so many people, particularly as the clippers strayed to the top of his head.
‘It wasn’t part of the bet, but I hadn’t had a haircut since June, so it was getting a bit long anyway,’ he said.
To donate visit https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/2P1hd or contact willz(at)manx.net
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