IT'S OVER!: http://youtu.be/T5Uzhv1zS3g
Over the last eight-or-so months, I've been growing a relatively large beard. Large enough to get unsolicited comments on most occasions that I leave the house. People that I've met recently don't even know what I really look like. They may or may not come to think of this as a blessing.
For slightly longer than I have been growing my beard, Ebola Virus Disease has been spreading in West Africa. The first case of the outbreak is believed to have been a two year-old boy, Emile Ouamouno, who died in December 2013.
Since then, the world has gone from personal tragedy to humanitarian crisis in the space of a few months. It shames us that it has continued for so long, at such a high human cost.
Despite the risks, many local people, and others from around the world, are volunteering to care for people with Ebola and their families, and educate communities.
If they are brave enough to go out in biohazard suits, then I'll be brave enough to shave off my beard and go from looking like a possibly-homeless wizard to a possibly-balding adolescent, and I humbly ask you to spare a few quid.
Let's see how much we can raise by the Sunday 30th November, and I'll blow the dust off the old scissors and razor.