BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — Police from Texas A&M, Bryan and College Station teamed with the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office to present a check supporting cancer research for children.
Beard It Up and The Cure Starts Now raises money for childhood cancer.
Local law enforcement team up and donate to grow a beard or goatee.
On Wednesday, local law enforcement presented a check of $10,481 to Beard It Up.
“You know, officers, law enforcement, we don’t get to really grow beards and so there’s this exception that’s made during this period so we as officers, we enjoy it,” said Deputy David Wilcox, spokesman, Brazos County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s something new that we get to do and we’re also donating to a good cause. We’re doing something that’s very beneficial and very meaningful to the community and being able to do that together for our community and with our community, it’s just an amazing thing.”
Vicky Bridier, a mom here in Brazos County, lost her daughter at four years old to Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, DIPG, a deadly tumor in the brain stem.
“I never really saw anything,” Bridier said. “Until the day she slipped and fell, and her eyes crossed. From that moment on, it rapidly progressed. The disease progresses so fast that she lost every bodily function within two weeks of her fall, and within five days of her diagnosis, she passed away.”
“It was horrible,” Bridier said. “I really had a short time with her. We didn’t have a lot of notice. She was perfectly fine. That’s how horrible this disease is that there is no symptoms that really tell you, ‘Hey, your child has cancer or a brain tumor and she’s going to die.”
DIPG is currently incurable and Bridier works to bring awareness to this cancer as well as other pediatric cancers.
“It was important for us to just get with all the agencies and have them be the voices for our children because they can’t speak anymore and their too young to articulate the pain that they’re going through,” Bridier said.
Brazos County law enforcement agencies were the first law enforcement agencies to join the campaign in 2016.
The campaign now includes 21 states, raising over $700,000.
