The horror of cancer has lead a Gibsons man to shave his head to raise funds for Jaltemba Cancer Walk.
A full head of dark hair at the age of 58 and one has to wonder why, Gerry Webb, a retired RCMP officer, is willing to shave it all off to raise funds for a mammogram machine meant for impoverished Mexican women in the Jaltemba Nayarit area.
Webb who lives half the year in Gibsons and the other half in Rincon De Guayabitos, Nayarit, said he has been hit hard by neighbors and friends who have recently died or have been diagnosed with a form of cancer and he wants to do more in the fight against cancer this year.
“I was involved in last year’s cancer walk and paid 1,500 pesos for a bra,” Webb recalled. “This year I wanted to do more than that and decided to raise $1,000 dollars for the Cancer de Mama Mammogram.”
He decided to get pledges from his friends to raise $1,000 and as an incentive he would shave his head.
“In the last year our good friend and next door neighbor in Guayabitos, Gordie Copp, died on July 10 due to pancreatic cancer. Rick Scowan another neighbor died on Dec. 28 of brain cancer and another friend back in B.C. has been diagnosed with an aggressive skin cancer,” Webb said.
Dorothy Bell, the Jaltemba Foundation chair and one the organizers of the walk said the money would be used for a sorely needed mammogram in the area.
“At the moment women who often earn less than 20 dollars a day, have to take the day off of work to travel to Tepic to get screened, then they will have to take another day off of work to get the results,” Bell said.
The result is that women cannot afford to take the time off of work and don’t get screened according to Bell.
“Right now we have a wonderful group of people, Cancer de Mama, who are providing a great service to women cancer survivors, providing prosthetic bras, wigs and clothing to Nayarit women,” Bell said. “This walk is meant to help Nayarit women get the detection screenings in a timely manner.”
Webb’s, wife Wilma volunteers for the Cancer de Mama clinic and this is his way of “doing something for all the people in his life who have been hurt by cancer.”
So far all of his friends and family have been very supportive, however, his daughter Janice Webb did have a caution for her dad.
“Be careful dad, it might not all come back so dark and thick,” she said.
You can send Webb your pledge via email at gerrywebb@dccnet.com.
The annual Jaltemba Walk against Cancer is this Tuesday, Feb. 14.
— Submitted
