A BARNARD Castle businesswoman is to sacrifice her hair for a cancer charity in memory of her mum who died ten years ago.
Pauline Connelly, of Connelly’s Toyshop, is taking on a Brave The Shave challenge on April 21 and hopes to raise £500 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Her mum, Eileen, died from cancer in 2007 aged 72.
She was diagnosed with the disease in November 2006 and underwent chemotherapy.
Ms Connelly said: “She was only really poorly at the end.
“It took everyone by surprise because it happened so quickly. She was in the shop on Monday and died on Wednesday.”
The shop will open at 9am on the day of the shave and visitors will be encouraged to make a donation while being treated to cake and free balloons.
The head shaving takes place at 11am and will be live streamed on the shop’s Facebook page.
Ms Connelly said: “I’m hoping to raise £500 to support the wonderful people at Macmillan. If people give 50 pence or put £1 on it, it’s all good. I will be sporting a new hairstyle for a few months.
“My hairdresser is not going to be happy.
“It will certainly be different, but it’ll grow again.”
She added that Macmillan Cancer Support not only provides end-of-life care to cancer patients, but also provides other facilities such as advice and financial support.
Anyone who wants to support Ms Connelly can visit the shop and make a donation or search for Brave The Shave on the internet and enter the name “Pauline Connelly” .
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
