This is an emotional one…
Over the weekend, one of our ambassadors who is spearheading
our #BeardsForTheBush campaign shaved off his illustrious chin locks
in front of 600+ people at the Nabiac TransMoto.
His name is Ben Debono,
AKA @Cruzin_Australia.
ANNND the bloke who shaved it is none other than
two time Dakar Rally winning world champion enduro rider
and Red Bull icon Toby Price.
A hero of Ben’s and pretty much anyone
who has ever slung a leg over a motorbike.
It was all to raise awareness and funds for our fight against melanoma
– one of the world’s deadliest cancers.
A fight we took to the front line during the event with our Beard Season Skin Check
tent in partnership with Dr. Paul Brennan from the Mid Coast Skin Cancer Clinic.
All in all we checked over 40 people and found ten suspect lesions,
plus two potential melanoma. Literally saving lives…
With the wonderful help of the TransMoto team Ben’s beard shave
raised over $8,000 which more than covered the costs of our specialist,
helping us do more of these free community skin checks.
On top of this… the TransMoto team have invited us back to do more
pop-up clinics at their events in the future. Bringing specialists to the people,
many of whom work outside and may have never had a skin check before.
So all in all it was an EPIC weekend with some SOLID riding,
great chats and a heap of great connections. Awesome to be in regional Australia
making a massive difference with some really wonderful people.
It was tough seeing Ben’s glorious beard being shaved off
which he’d been growing since embarking on the honeymoon his wife could never be there on
after she lost her battle with melanoma in 2017. A tragic loss which will always
be painful for Ben, her friends and family. We’re just so honoured to be working
with them to turn bad into good. Hopefully saving people from a similar fate.
We can’t thank you all enough for making this happen and are massively grateful
for everyone for getting involved and making it such a top success.
Much love,
Jimmy Niggles & the Beard Season team.
