A north-east bar owner has pledged to shave off his beard to support people in Ukraine.
Jonney Gardner has owned the Harbour Bar in Gordoun for four years, but none of his customers have ever seen him clean shaven.
But desperate to do his part to help those fleeing Putin’s invasion, the ex-Army man has promised to shave it off – if he raises a minimum of £500 by April 2.
Mr Gardner, who has had a beard for about eight years, will shave it off in the pub – and is even auctioning off the chance to do the honours.
All money raised will go to DEC’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal which is supporting those in urgent need in Ukraine and surrounding countries.
Locals ‘won’t recognise me’
Mr Gardner admitted his partner was not thrilled about the fundraiser as she takes great pride in making the beard “look lovely”, but hopes it will draw enough attention to make a difference.
When asked how he feels about being clean shaven for the first time in eight years, Mr Gardner said: “In a way kind of amused. So many regular customers in my pub probably won’t recognise me for the first while. My beard has had various lengths, when I first took my pub here it was rather long.
“My current partner takes great pride in trimming it and shaping it and keeping it looking lovely. That is one of the things she is most distraught about is that I’m going to be shaving off all of her hard work to try and get my beard to look lovely.”
Reminiscent of attacks in Bosnia
Mr Gardner served in the army for 12 years and has seen up close the horrors that war brings. He said that the footage from Ukraine is bringing back some horrible memories from his time in Bosnia.
In January 1996, his team was deployed in Bosnia to try and enforce the peace and stop people from killing each other. However, he said by the time they would arrive at many places, it was too late.
One town in particular was badly affected by this. Mr Gardner said: “The town which I spent most of my time in, Mrkonjić Grad, had been reduced from a population of something in the region of 14,000 down to four people.
“Only two buildings in the town actually had roofs left on them or hadn’t been bombed, or shelled or burnt. So many of the pictures that I see coming out of the Ukraine and areas in which Russia are now attacking in the same way are so reminiscent of that.”
Mr Gardner said he could not help but feel compassion for those in Ukraine but also worry with where the situation will go next.
He said: “There is too much opportunity for it to escalate completely out of control from where it is.”
‘We do need to draw the line’
While it can feel like a world away, the 47-year-old said that we will probably have some more economical hardships in the UK.
Mr Gardner said: “We can’t let Putin and his cronies do what they’ve been doing. We do need to draw the line and unfortunately the only way we can stop them isn’t really militarily.
“Coming from ex-military myself, I can’t see us being able to stop it militarily without the worst case scenario happening but the best case scenario is for us to stop it economically and as painful as that is that will cost us more in the next year or two.
“Petrol bills, electricity bills, they’re all going to change and not for the better but what would you rather have – that we pay more for our petrol, we pay more for our electricity or tens, hundreds, thousands of people dying from an escalation of the European conflict?”
If enough funds are raised, Mr Gardner promises to stay clean shaven for the week.
