TWO Wee County men raised more than £9,000 for charity by spreading Christmas cheer to those in Clacks and beyond.

Gordon Guthrie and Gus Rennie had their heads and beards shaved on Monday, December 27 to raise money for Kidney Kids Scotland.

For the past few months, Gordon has been doing live appearances and video messages as Santa Claus to raise money for the charity.

Gus, Gordon's friend, has been helping him along the way and also decided to have his hair and beard shaved too.

Gordon was hoping to raise £5,000 for the charity, which has been supporting Luca Teven, a family friend of Gordon who recently received a kidney transplant.

He had his hair and beard shaved at Lux Salon, Luca's mum's salon in Stirling.

The fundraiser is currently sitting at £6,788 and Gordon also has other money to be added to it, which brings the total amount raised to more than £9,000.

Gordon told the Advertiser: "The brave the shave went ahead…no beard, no hair, shaved the whole lot off."

Growing the hair and beard since July, Gordon joked he definitely feels the cold more now but it was more than worth it.

He continued: "I look like a cue ball.

"I'm absolutely ecstatic about it. December has been absolutely hectic.

"I've been to Glasgow, Livingston, at Christmas parties…but the donations have been absolutely fantastic."

Money has been coming in from all over the world, with donations received from Texas, New Zealand, Croatia and many more places.

"There's a lot of big hearts out there," Gordon added. "It kind of restores your faith in humanity."

Gordon had also been making personal appearances as Santa and was accepting nothing more than a donation for his time; however, those appearances had to stop in recent weeks due to the restrictions surrounding the Omicron variant.

That hasn't stopped Gordon from spreading the Christmas cheer as he continued to make video appearances right up until Christmas.

"We did something like 80 personal messages," Gordon added.

Now that the hair and beard are gone, Gordon admitted he missed it and might have to grow it back, but not just for him.

He continued: "My grandson said to me: 'You don't look like my pappy any more'.

"Because I've been growing it for that long, it looked pretty convincing."

Despite spreading Christmas cheer and positivity, it wasn't all easy for Gordon with regular hair and beard bleachings and daily lateral flow tests.

What is clear is that every little thing was more than worthwhile.

Gordon added: "I'm absolutely overjoyed with the amount of money that's been raised."

Karen McFarlane, manager of Kidney Kids Scotland, said: "We cannot thank Gordon enough for choosing to support Kidney Kids Scotland.

"His support has been truly amazing.

"Kidney Kids Scotland receive no government funding and rely on wonderful supporters like Gordon to help us continue our essential work.

"The charity supports children all over Scotland who suffer from renal and urology illness.

"The money raised by Gordon and all of his supporters will enable us to make a huge difference.

"On behalf of all the families we will be able to help, we thank him for all his efforts"

Visit tinyurl.com/2p8s8eh5 to donate to the fundraiser.