St. Baldrick's: One of These Things...
- Guy Winterbotham
- Mar 28
- 2 min read
Take a look at the photo above. It’s a classic "Spot the Difference" puzzle. You’ve got a stage full of brave souls, a sea of shiny, freshly shorn scalps, an honored kid cancer survivor at the center, and then... there’s me. In the bottom left. Sporting a shock of bright blue hair like a Smurf who wandered into the wrong neighborhood.
Last year, at our annual CSz Richmond St. Baldrick’s event, a friend made a very last-minute, very generous donation to save my hair from the clippers. It was a fun "Yes, And" moment for the show, but it left me as the literal outlier. My head stayed blue while everyone else went "Bald as a Yes-Balloon."
The thing is, "outliers" are exactly what we’re looking for in cancer research.
The Luck of the Draw
I am currently in remission from prostate cancer. I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Why? Because my path to a "cure" was well-paved. The funding was there. The research was done. The statistics on outcomes guided my decisions. I knew what I was in for, how long it would take, and the consequences of my choices. As an adult, I had the agency to choose my treatment, and I had the certainty of a predictable outcome. My roadmap was clear.
But for kids, the roadmap is often missing a few pages.
While we celebrate an 85% survival rate for childhood cancer, that number hides a messy reality. Because of a massive funding gap—only 4% of federal cancer research dollars go to kids—many "cures" for children are just repurposed adult treatments. They are often too toxic for growing bodies. In fact, 99% of survivors develop chronic health problems by age 50 because the treatment that saved their lives also left a permanent mark.
Finishing the Job
When you look at that photo, my blue hair is a metaphor. In the world of biology, cancer cells are the outliers—the things that don't belong, hiding in plain sight. We need research that is smart enough to find the "blue hair" and leave the rest of the head alone.
Last year, I got to keep the blue. This year, I’m not just playing the game; I’m finishing the job.
On April 11th, the hair is going away. No last-minute saves. No "Yes-Anding" my way out of the chair. We are going full "shave" to help St. Baldrick’s fill that $20 million funding gap for life-saving research.
The $1,000 Milestone (And Your Choice!)
My goal this year is $1,500. It’s a serious number for a serious cause. Saving a child from cancer doesn’t just save a patient; it saves an average of 71 productive years of life. That’s a lot of laughter and a lot of life left to be lived.
Will you help me finish the job? Every dollar counts toward making sure that when we take the group photo this year, the only thing "not like the others" is the fact that we’ve finally kicked cancer off the stage.
P.S. You get to pick my look! Donate before 4/6/2026 and leave a comment with your vote for this year's hair color: Pink, Blue, Purple, or Red. I’ll rock the winning color during the ComedySportz® show right before the clippers come out!
