Every day is a ‘something’ day these days.
World Mental Health Day, World Book Day, International Women’s Day, the list goes on.
And on.
This Friday will be Wear A Hat Day in aid of Brain Tumour Research. And, if Bridport is true to form, then there should be loads of headgear being sported around the streets and beyond.
Each year, Bridport has its own hat festival, which sees a massive end-of-summer party in celebration of the humble and not-so-humble hat. Profits go to head-related charities and everyone has a great old time.
I love hats almost as much as I love shoes.
I can’t walk past Snooks in West Street without being drawn to their window display. Every time I change my hair colour (which is quite often these days, to hide the grey), I’m drawn into buying another hat.
There’s a particularly lovely lichen green beret I have my eye on after buying it as a Christmas present for a dear friend last year.
It’s a beautiful item of clothing and I wanted to buy it for her to cheer her up after major brain surgery.
It’s not much, but I knew it would make her smile, and suit her colouring and style.
To most people, the health and happiness of family and friends is the most important things of all. And in the current melee of divisions caused by Brexit, it pays to take a step back and appreciate what life is all about.
Many of us have our chosen charities or things we support, for one reason or another. And this Friday, because of my friend (and also a cousin and another friend who wrote a brilliant newspaper article about his brain tumour, to which I would have linked it but has been wiped from the internet) I shall make a donation to Brain Tumour Research and wear a hat.
According to the charity, brain tumours are indiscriminate; they can affect anyone at any age. What’s more, they kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer. Yet historically, just one percent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.
Since 2010 Wear A Hat Day has raised over £1 million. Over the years, Brain Tumour Research has had amazing support from the public as well as patrons and celebrity supporters including Debbie McGee, Denise Van Outen and the man of the moment, John Bercow.
Wear A Hat Day is the UK’s biggest brain tumour research fundraising event. Every year, thousands of people across the UK don their favourite headgear and take part in hat-themed events in their local communities.
