IT was a close shave for Clive Stewart when he said goodbye to his beard in aid of two good causes.

Clive, who is a regular at the Castle Howard Ox, in Townend Street, York, agreed to shave off his whiskers in return for donations.

The stunt was part of a fundraising day at the pub, with live music, a barbecue, face-painting and a raffle. A total of £600 was raised, with the money being split between Cancer Research UK and a fund to send a three-year-old boy with terminal cancer to Disneyland in Florida.

Blaise Etheridge-Clark, of Rawcliffe, in York, is receiving 12 months of chemotherapy in the hope it will prolong his life by shrinking the cancerous tumour in his brain. When he finishes his treatment, his family hope to take him to Disneyland.

Landlady Paula Allen, who is the best friend of Blaise’s mother, Theresa, said: “It was a really good day. Blaise and all his family were able to come and we must have had about 200 people here at its peak.”