Going bald - all for little Ellie (From Barry And District News)

Going bald - all for little Ellie

THE TRAGIC cot death of a Barry-born baby last October has persuaded the child's uncle to go bald for charity.

Ellie died last autumn just days before her second birthday, leaving family and friends utterly devastated.

Hours before her father Robert Gardiner, of Barry Road, discovered her dead in her in her cot, she had been running around having fun at a Halloween party. Now her family is helping to raise money for research into cot death so that such a tragedy might be prevented.

Uncle Charlie Gooderman, of Woodlands Road, Barry, has been given more than £800 for the cause.

"People have been fantastic. Everybody knows my sister-in-law, and we were all so devastated when Ellie died," he said.

"If it can only save one life, then it is worth it. I would hate another family to have to go through what we went through. The hole she has left in our family's life is still noticeable now, 10 months after her death."

The 46-year old painter has been collecting money for three months but says he had been thinking of going bald for charity for a long time. He said: "I didn't have the courage before. My wife got all the sponsorship forms together from the Foundation for the Study of Infant Death, and has been pushing me ever since."

Mr Gardiner says he has mixed feelings about shaving his hair off.

"I was in the RAF for 25 years. They used to make me shave every day. I hated that. I left five years ago and I've hardly cut my hair since!

"But my hair has never been as long as this before. This weather, it's really hot."