Father Christmas made a rare appearance in Falmouth after the festive season when he agreed to have his 32-year-old beard shaved off for charity.
Using his off-duty name of Bob Kiszczuk, Santa agreed to a barefaced challenge – the public removal of the beard he had been growing since 1977, in order to raise over £530 for Cornwall Hospice Care.
Mr Kiszczuk is well known in the town after being out and about in Falmouth over the Christmas period dressed in his red Santa outfit.
A crowd of around 20 people gathered at St Mary’s Catholic Church hall, where volunteer Clive Morris played the Sweeney Todd role and made a clean shave of it with only one nick for St Nicholas.
Christine Morris, Falmouth support group chairman for the charity, said: “Grateful thanks from the Falmouth Support Group for having us as his chosen charity. That’s a wonderful amount to have out of the blue, without any extra fundraising. He’s had such a lot of support, so grateful thanks to everybody that supported him.”
She added that such was the level of support, Mr Kiszczuk kept running out of sponsorship forms.
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