By Nigel Maxwell

Proud son goes extra length for good cause

Jan 23, 2015 | 10:54 AM

Saskatoon’s Blair Farthing has not had a hair-cut since Oct. 14, 2014, the day before his father’s funeral.

His father, Dale, passed away from cancer. As a way of paying tribute to his father, Blair is growing his hair out for a year. He is raising money for the Children’s Wish Foundation, and hopes to donate the hair to the Cancer Society.

The former CTV Prince Albert reporter said this is something he has always wanted to do.

“On T.V. they’ve kinda got rules about that [growing your hair long] but I figured now that I’m off T.V., with the chemotherapy my dad went through, now seemed like kind of the perfect time and if I can raise a bit of money doing it, you know why not,” said Farthing.

Farthing’s dad was initially diagnosed with cancer in 2013, but was able to beat it. The cancer returned in the summer of 2014. The family decided at that time to take family pictures.

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“It was nice to have the pictures but also thinking if the cancer didn’t go well we’d have these mementos,” said Farthing.

Within a couple weeks the chemo took full effect and Farthing’s dad lost his hair. Farthing said it was very hard for his dad to accept, because he was always proud of his hair.

“He was 60 when he passed but he always had just awesome hair, pretty long and thick,” said Farthing.

Farthing figured the best tribute he could pay to his dad was growing his hair out. The Children’s Wish Foundation was also a cause very close to his dad’s heart. Farthing was a bit worried about telling his mom at first because she liked him to keep his hair short.

“She was going to get her hair cut and I figured she would say something along the lines of, you know, while we are there you may as well cut yours too. Before she could say that I said I’ve decided to grow my hair out for a year in memory of dad, I wanna raise money for Children’s Wish Foundation. She got a little emotional, and she was completely on board.

Farthing is in the process of setting up a donation account.  When the account is set up, we will post the link here.

nmaxwell@panow.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell