MADAM,

We’re calling on your readers to help us to harness the power of the beard to take on bowel cancer this Christmas.

If you’re willing to go grizzly throughout December, dye or decorate your existing face fur or hold a ‘beardy’ event in the office or local area over the festive period, then join our hairy band of brothers taking on bowel cancer beard by beard.

Beating Bowel Cancer’s Decembeard campaign asks men to grow or decorate their beard to raise funds for the charity. This will help us to support bowel cancer patients and to raise awareness of the disease, its symptoms and the need for early diagnosis.

Each year in the UK, more than 40,000 people are diagnosed with the disease - and 16,000 each year die from it. But it doesn’t have to be that way because 90 per cent of those diagnosed at an early stage can be successfully treated.

Please sign up today at decembeard.org and prepare to ditch your razor over the festive season.

Charlotte Dawson

(Beating Bowel Cancer)