Cardiff Coucilor Simon Wakefield has said farewell to a long and trusted friend. After 39 years, he has shaved off his beard for the Lord Mayor’s nominated charity, LATCH.
Cllr Wakefield gathered with friends and family in Windsor Barbers in Cardiff city centre and calmly sat back as Sarah Jane Harris expertly removed all his facial hair.
As well as being a longstanding friend of the Lord Mayor, Cllr Keith Hyde, Cllr Wakefield has a personal interest in LATCH and has been very keen to get involved this year. He said, “I’ve known Keith for a long time and LATCH is his charity and I always said if I was going to get rid of the beard it would be for one charity or another. I lost a step-daughter to cancer seven years ago so LATCH is a personal charity which we try and do bits and bobs for.
“They do such good work for families and kids that are suffering with cancer and it’s local. The kids are in the Heath Hospital and they support in various ways, they give respite care and enable kids to have some breaks away, Eurodisney, things like that. Then there’s the research and medical side of it. Cancer isn’t very nice at any time of life, but it’s really hideous if you’re 8 9, 10 or 11. I’m too fat and unfit to run a marathon so I thought I’d take the beard off instead.”
Cllr Wakefield, a Cardiff councillor for 12 years and Chair of the Environmental Scrutiny Committee, has had his beard all his adult life and reflected that only his sister in Australia and the odd aunt were the only people on the planet to have seen him without it. He admitted it felt strange, “The experience was fine, Sarah did an excellent job, but it’s going to be odd having anything to play with on my chin to pull and tug when nervous, this is going to be the problem.” He hasn’t decided if he will remain unshaved, “The job at the university requires me to be on stage at St David’s Hall in mid July for the degree ceremony so I’ll either start again in June if I decide to re-grow it and be relatively tidy for that or never I suppose. I’ll give it a go for a week or so at least and see what it’s like, see if it changes my character, who knows?” he said.
Owner of Windsor Barbers, Sarah Jane Harris was impressed with her client. She said, “He was fantastic actually, I thought he was very calm, cool and collected seeing as he’s had his beard for 39 years, very relaxed, he was an excellent client and hopefully he’ll keep his beard off now.”
Since word started spreading about Cllr Wakefield’s shave, over £600 has already been raised for LATCH. You can donate to LATCH via Cllr Wakefield’s site on www.virginmoneygiving.com/SimonWakefield.
