Doncaster woman to shave head to raise money for bereavement charity

Cheryl Lawson is known for her long, curly, red hair.

But she is planning to shave it all off for the charity Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide.

The 33-year-old from Scawthorpe, said: “My sister's fiance Pete committed suicide on May 21 of this year.

“He suffered from a borderline personality disorder and had bouts of depression.“Lockdown did not help the situation.

“Some days he could cope but others were difficult.”

Cheryl says that Pete Sims, 34, of Cusworth was an outgoing and joyful man.

He was often described as the life of the party and was a great father to son Edwin.

“He had struggled for years and gone through so much,” Cheryl said.

“I’m doing the head shave in his memory.

“I know that he would be 100 per cent behind it.”

She has wanted to do a head shave for many years but has waited for the right cause which means something personal to her.

Cheryl has so far raised £850 and is planning on doing the big shave when she reaches £1,000.

She said: “I’m looking forward to shaving it off because I have so much hair and it will be nice to be able to wake up in the morning and not have to tame it.

“My hair is how a lot of people recognise me so I thought it would be symbolic to take that away.

“When people struggle with mental illness that is sometimes the only thing people can see about them.”

Cheryl wants to start more conversations in Doncaster about mental illness and how it’s treated in our town.

“There is a shut up and put up attitude in our town,” she continued.

“It can be hard to explain to people that they need to speak about their feelings.

“Lockdown has put a lot of extra stress on people and I truly believe that we need to talk and change attitudes around mental health.”

If you want to donate to Cheryl’s head shave you can do here.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read important request to make of you.site I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Nancy Fielder, editor