Report from Paul Apps, Abob Project Lead Eastbourne
It’s 2pm, Saturday 19th April. A beautiful young woman, Taylor Newman-Bruce is outside Webster’s hair salon in Brighton. She has a glass of wine in her hand for a bit of Dutch courage and about to make, what I feel, is a huge sacrifice to help raise awareness to the work abandofbrothers do in the Brighton community and especially for the transformation she has seen in her brother younger Tom.
There is a great crowd building and people start donating cash to get the privilege of chopping off some of Taylor’s gold and green locks. A local film maker, Ben Cole, is enthusiastically filming the event. Some of Taylor’s mates are offering fundraising buckets as enthusiatically as is possible under charity commission rules… A few others are handing out abob information to the interested bystanders.
All in all a magical atmosphere. I talk briefly to Taylor’s mum who is overwhelmed with pride for Taylor and this selfless act and for the work her son Tom has done on himself with ABOB…… ‘Its changed all our lives……I can’t thank ABOB enough’
The snipping and cutting continues for a while until there isn’t much left to look at… This is followed by the clippers….. Sigourney Weaver comes to mind… Then a short break where Talylor sheds a tear for her lost golden green locks that play a big part in the femininity of any woman. A very emotional moment for all.
Connection with the local community was wonderful with lots of genuine interest in what this was all really about.. I got to chat to a lovely Syrian young man who is over in the UK working at Cambridge University on a ‘Social Conciseness Project’…. He loved the work!
Lots of Baldness, lots of tears, lots of laughter, lots of connection, lots of love, lots of raised awareness and hopefully lots of cash for future projects.. Well Done Taylor!!…Now available for Sigourney Weaver look-a-like work!!
For more on Taylor’s Motivation for doing this, see here.
If you feel moved to donate, please do so here
The traditional “Before” Picture
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- Before
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- Dutch courage
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- During
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- After