In July last year, we were all shocked to hear that one of our year 10 students had been diagnosed with a brain tumour.  Since then, Jake has spent long periods of time in hospital in London receiving treatment.

His friends have been a fantastic support to him throughout this.  Jake was introduced to a superb electric wheelchair whilst in hospital but the cost for the wheelchair was phenomenal.  ‘Wipe Away Those Tears’ is an Essex based charity who support seriously ill children and when they heard about Jake, they very kindly funded the wheelchair for him. This has enabled him to regain some of his independence and even begin his return to school – something that made staff and students very happy – and even Jake believe it or not!

Billy Dryden and friends decided that they wanted to give something back to the charity.  Billy decided on a sponsored head shave.  Originally, Billy had convinced a number of friends to join him but only he and George Errington were brave enough to go through with this (the thought of being bald at the school Prom in June was just too much for some!)  So on Thursday 16th March, the boys sat in front of hundreds of students and trusted a number of staff with clippers to completely shave their heads!  George’s reaction when he touched his head post shave was one of complete shock and exclamation of ‘I’m bald’!  I’m not sure what he was expecting really!

So far the boys have raised a huge £2859.  I know that so many people are unbelievably proud of the boys and their friends for organising and taking part in such a successful event for charity.  Well done to all of you, we are all so proud of you all and Jake is very lucky to have such a great group of friends.

Miss Murdoch