By NICK CROOK
BRANDON Acton saw his sister come home crying – she had found out that her best friend, Ricky Taylor, had been diagnosed with cancer.
Most 14-year-olds would comfort their sister in any way they could but for Brandon, that wasn’t enough.
“Just one night I was sitting there and I was wondering what I could do to help,” he said.
What he ended up doing to help, of his own volition without the guidance or help of his parents, was raise over $1000 by organising a fundraiser to shave his head.
“The first time I heard about it was when my friend sent me a text message saying how great it was what Brandon was doing,” said his mother.
Upon hearing what Brandon planned to do, the team’s captain, Mitchell Palma took his leadership role to the next level and joined Brandon in his fundraising effort.
“He wanted to help support me while I did it so I didn’t feel alone,” said Brandon.
“He was a bit nervous, I guess we both were a bit nervous when it came to the time but we felt pretty good about what we were doing.”
Following football training the team returned to the Parkmore Pirates clubrooms to start culling some hair. In exchange for a donation the boys let teammates, club members and friends shave their locks off and it wasn’t necessarily the treatment you’d receive at your local hairdresser.
“Mitch had it pretty easy but I had a couple of kids come and they shaved it pretty hard,” joked Brandon.
The character of these boys was on full display as not only have they raised over $1,000 but they did so for a young man who doesn’t even play on their team or run in the same circles. When they saw the opportunity to help they didn’t just talk about doing it – Brandon didn’t even tell his parents! – they went out and did it.
It wasn’t the first time that the young Parkmore Pirate has done his bit for charity; he has completed Run for the Kids and also sacrificed his hair in years gone by when he participated in the World’s Greatest Shave.
Brandon was pretty modest about the whole event: “It gets a bit cold in the morning… But it’s hair – it will grow back.”
Ricky went in for major surgery the following Tuesday and both Parkmore Pirates and the South East Juniors wish him a speedy recovery.
