TBWA's Philip Brett goes bald for tsunami victims

When Brett heard his friends were shaving their heads in a charity fundraiser, he was quick to put his hand up to donate towards the worthy cause.

But when they insisted he take part in the ‘hair-razing’ event, he was a little less enthusiastic.

So, he turned to colleagues across the region with the promise that if they pledged a total of US$3,200 towards the fund in a timeframe of 24 hours, he would go through with it. In fact, it took just 24 minutes.

And by the time he stepped up to be shaved 24 hours later, he had raised a total of over US$4,000

While there was a festive air around the shave-off, the fund raiser was initiated by an exceptionally moving story - a heartbreaking report from the Kama Elementary School in the town of Ishinomaki, where seven days after their city was ravaged by the tsunami - 30 children, aged eight to 12, were still sitting quietly in their third floor classroom, waiting for their mothers to come and collect them.  

According to The Telegraph UK, the earthquake struck shortly before going-home time, and as parents of students in the middle school arrived to collect their children, a wall of black water surged into the playground.  

Some were sucked out by the force of the tsunami, and only saved when teachers flung a firehose in their direction.  

Parents of the youngest children, whose classes finished a little earlier, had just left. Those who went home one way likely survived; those who left the other way - down a road now littered with debris and overturned cars - were swept away.  

Parents of older children, whose pick up time was later, were yet to arrive. Many never did. The school is now an evacuation centre, home to 600 people from a town where more than a thousand are missing.

“Everyone feels bad about what happened in Japan. We are just doing our bit to help,” said Brett.