In Novembers past, Narooma’s Greg Watts, otherwise known as Nurk, has done Movember.
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This year his facial hair, his friend for 40 years, is being shaved to raise funds for Global Lyme Awareness and to support an ex National Parks colleague, Natalie Young of Coffs Harbour, doing it tough in her battle against Lyme disease.
Salon Mosaic at Narooma will be 'buzzing the fuzz' at 12noon next Wednesday, November 30 - the day the report of the Senate Enquiry into Lyme Disease will be handed down.
Joining him for the buzz will be Karen Smith, co-founder of Global Lyme Awareness group, who will be back in Narooma next week.
Think globally. Act locally. The Global Lyme and Invisible Illness Organisation (GLiIO) is a not-for profit association raising awareness of Lyme Borreliosis and other vector borne illness around the world.
This November sees the introduction of its Southern Hemisphere spring fundraising and awareness campaign - “Crop the Mop/Buzz the Fuzz”.
Half of Mr Watts proceeds will go toward his former colleague Natalie Young and the other half will go toward GLiIO’s efforts.
The nickname 'Nurk', Greg’s Facebook moniker, comes from 1976 when I was living in a university share house in Canberra that had 'tenants' coming and going all the time.
“In the original 'buzz the fuzz' act, I shaved off the locks and was wandering around the house for three days before my housemates realised who it was - (voice: Neil in the Young Ones TV series) 'we thought: who is this Fred Nurk guy roaming around our house?”
Here is the link to his GoFundMe page:
Crop the Mop/Buzz the Fuzz will become a yearly campaign, with the concept following on from similar lines in which the Northern Hemisphere Lyme community joined forces to raise awareness of the dangers of ticks and the pathogens they carry in May, which is their last month of Spring.
Similarly, this campaign will raise awareness in time for summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and aims to educate the wider community that ticks become more active in summer time, and to be aware of the health issues that may follow after a tick bite.
The date of November 30 was chosen to launch the inaugural campaign as it is a significant one in Australia this year. On this date the final report of the Australian Government Senate Inquiry regarding growing evidence of emerging tick-borne disease that causes Lyme-like illness for many Australian patients is about to be released.
On November 30, GLilO founders Karen Smith of Australia and Lisa Hilton of the USA will launch the inaugural campaign by each 'cropping' approximately 40cm of their long tresses.
Once cropped, they will be donating their hair for wigs. Lisa's hair is going to a cancer organisation in America and Karen's hair will be sent to an Alopecia organisation in Australia.
While the added bonus in this Inaugural campaign is that both founders of GLiIO have hair long enough to be able to donate for wig making, the primary aims of Crop the Mop are to raise awareness of Lyme & Vector Borne Illness; raise funds for projects that GLiIO undertakes; and to help people raise funds for patient care/treatment.
The Lyme community was asked to join in helping make the campaign a success by either, sharing the campaign and spreading awareness, cropping their own mop, or donating funds.