Pensioner from Northamptonshire dyes upper body hair orange in aid of nurses who help his wife

Christopher Denman, aged 68, from Cottingham Road, Moulton, took up the unusual tribute to raise money for the Macmillan Cancer Support charity, who are helping his wife Erika through her incurable lung cancer.

He said: “The nurses have been so good to my wife through three bouts of cancer, I just wanted to think of something unusual to raise money for them.

“Everybody’s done a head shave, I thought I’d do something different.”

Mr Denman said he got the idea after watching a television advert for Grecian 3000 and deciding to go a step further and dye his barnet, moustache and chest hair red.

However, the lack of pigment in his silvery thatch caused the resultant shade to be closer to bright orange.

He said: “I now look like Coco the blooming clown.

“People I know just burst out laughing when they see me.

“People love it, though. It’s a great way of getting extra donations.

“I was in Screwfix and told the girls there the story behind it and they gave me a few quid and so did the customers at a restaurant.

“It certainly gets people talking.”

Mr Denman has so far raised £500 for Macmillan.