Hamilton Tiger-Cat and Brantford-native Mike Filer has made a name for himself as an elite offensive lineman but mostly, “the guy with the Zeus-like beard.” However Filer decided today that the beard had to go.

“Nervous, haven’t seen my face in eight years so we’ll see what’s hiding under all the hair.”

Mike’s Manscaping Challenge for Cancer raised over $20 000 to help build a new stem cell transplant wing at Juravinski hospital. A facility Filer visited for the past nine years as his mother Kimberly received stem cell treatments as she battled blood cancer. She died last January.

“Been a tough year but I knew there was something I wanted to do to honour her on her behalf. Every time we walked through those doors it was just a feeling of relief, you were in great hands, well taken care of the doctors, nurses, support staff would rally around you and the individual, in this case my mom, make everyone feel at ease.”

The $22 000 brings the hospital closer to reaching it’s $5 million goal of building the stem cell wing. Hospital executives say the facility should be completed by sometime next year.