Fairport’s “Samson” Succumbs…

As most of us of a certain age will know, Samson and Delilah are mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. Delilah is loved by Samson, a Nazirite who possesses great strength. Delilah is bribed by the chief of the Philistines to discover the source of his strength. After three failed attempts at doing so, she finally goads Samson into telling her that his strength is derived from his hair. As he sleeps, Delilah orders a servant to cut Samson’s hair, thereby enabling her to turn him over to the Philistines.

In modern times, however, the cutting of hair – especially long locks, it has to be said – has become a means by which individuals have raised funds for good causes, rather than the, perhaps, dubious reasons that Delilah had in mind !!!

One such good-hearted individual is our own Jon Salkeld – ICT technician by day and pizza-delivery champion by night. Jon had his signature blond tresses drastically shortened on Saturday 3rd February 2018 in support of The Little Princess Trust. LPT, as it is acronymically known, provides real hair wigs free of charge to children and young adults up to the age of 24 that have sadly lost their own hair due to cancer treatment and other illnesses.

On the right you can see the “before” and “after” visual effect on Jon; but the important aspect of the “after” photo is that he is still smiling and, apart from well-meant, leg-pulling comments such as, “A young Chris Evans look-alike”, so he should be !!!!

Not only will his hair be used to make at least one wig for one of these deserving young people but Jon also achieved over £600 sponsorship from family, friends and work colleagues at Fairport in doing so – enough to cover the cost to make two natural hair wigs! On a financial note, and as a reflection on both Jon individually and LPT generally, many people have taken part in this and other similar activities since LPT was founded in 2006. Some £4,500,000 was raised in endowments and fund-raising efforts in 2016/17 and of this £1,200,000 has been used to support research & development activities here in the UK.