An executive director at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust shaved his beard for charity earlier this week – raising almost £1000.

Rob Elek, director of strategy, grew his beard for six months before shaving it off in aid of St George’s Hospital Charity’s New Kit Appeal. The appeal aims to raise £140,000 to buy life-changing equipment that will help a range of patients including the unborn child, liver, kidney, cardiac and elderly patients.

The official shave took place at The Refinery in Mayfair on Tuesday 23rd February. The award winning team were only too happy to support Rob’s charity fundraiser by kindly providing the shave free of charge.

IMG_0149

St George’s Twitter (@StGeorgesTrust) followers were able to see the beard shave happen in real time with live tweets and photos being posted to showcase the fundraising event.

Rob said: “I decided to do the beard shave because I wanted to help raise the profile of the charity and raise money for the new kit appeal to support patients across St George’s”.

Noel Cramer, director of fundraising and marketing at St George’s Hospital Charity said: “St George’s will benefit hugely from Rob’s beard shave and bring forward the day when patients will be able to access a new renal dialysis machine, a portable echo machine for the cardiac teams, and equipment to help the unborn child and elderly patients. It’s great that doing something that’s fun can bring real benefits locally at St George’s and Queen Mary’s Hospitals.”

Rob quickly exceeded his initial goal of £500 – so doubled his sights to £1000.

He said: “Thanks to all of you who have sponsored me, the response has been so overwhelming. Who knew the beard was so unpopular?”

There is still time to donate via his JustGiving page though (www.justgiving.com/RElek/). Using JustGiving is an easy and safe way to send donations straight to St George’s Hospital Charity.

IMG_0185