Waterlooville PCSO leads devoted group of brave shavers

Chris Penfold of Waterlooville police station was among a group of 13 devoted friends who raised more than £4,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Chris, 32, joined Louis Clarke, Simon Skeates, Gary Beazley, Freddie Lague, Greg Best, Mike Greensmith, Lyall Beazley, Richard Waterman, and Vaughn Jordan in going bald.

James Wilson and Ethan Chapman went one step further and braved leg waxes, while Jon Thatcher had his chest waxed.

The group were inspired to join the recent fundraising trend after Chris’ friend Gemma Bourne was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer, and shaved her hair off during the early stages of chemotherapy.

PCSO Chris called the event at the Harvest Home Pub in Denmead a ‘huge success’.

He said: ‘I feel privileged to have been a part of this and I’m super proud of Gemma.

‘She is always so happy and upbeat considering what she and her family are going through at the moment.’

Staff from Denmead salon Hairworks even handed the clippers over to Gemma, 32, to shave Chris’ head.

Gemma, a sales assistant from Denmead, said that she ‘had great pleasure’ in doing the honours for her best friend of 20 years.

She said: ‘It’s important to raise the money and the awareness for Macmillan.

‘I wanted to show that I’m fine, it’s going to be fine, and I did not want everyone being sad.’

After raising £1,400 before the big day, the team managed to gather more than £4,300 for the cancer charity.

Chris said: ‘It was definitely overwhelming to raise that much money.’

The Southern Co-operative, The Bake House and Concise Removals & Storage were among the many local businesses who also made contributions of prizes for a raffle, which was organised by friend Lois Buckland-Evers.

Gemma, who gave birth to her first son Benjamin last year, said: ‘We did not expect for it to be as big as it was –you literally could not move in the pub.

‘I’m very fortunate I have a lot of friends behind me.