A 28-year-old father from the US shaved his head and got a tattoo to match his son’s brain surgery scar.
In March 2015, Josh Marshall learned that his son Gabriel was suffering from a rare malignant brain tumor called anaplastic astrocytoma.
After his diagnosis, the next few months were tough on the family as Gabriel underwent several treatments and invasive surgery.
After his surgery, although the doctors declared him stable, the little boy still had some amount of tumor left in his brain.
“My son was very self-conscious after he got his surgery. He felt like a monster,” Marshall told ABC News.
According to BBC, “He’s been doing good, and he’s been off treatment about nine months now,” said Josh.
“He has scans once every three months, and his next MRI is scheduled for next week.”
The surgery left a big surgical scar on Gabriel’s head – something that would always remind him of his surgical procedure and its horror.
The little kid was so disturbed after his surgery because his head had a scar, which made him look different from the rest of the kids.
When Josh saw his child suffering and upset, he decided to do something to make him feel better. The Kansas dad shaved his head and got a tattoo that looked exactly like Gabriel’s scar.
“When he told me that he felt like a monster due to his scar, that broke my heart,” said Marshall. “I told him if people wanted to stare, they could stare at both of us.”
According to Buzzfeed, Josh’s tattoo was done by Merl Kent from Point Black Tattoo.
Later the father-son duo participated in St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s Best Bald Dad competition.
“It’s a contest that takes submissions from dads, uncles, and grandads who have shaved their head in honor of a child they know who has or had cancer.”
In his submission, the Kansas dad wrote that he entered the contest just to boost his son’s self-confidence.
“Me and my son at this year’s St. Baldrick’s event in Wichita, Kansas. Got my son’s scar tattooed to help his self-confidence.”
The BBC report stated, “The competition is open to family and friends of a child who has cancer.”
“Josh Marshall’s entry was voted for more than 5,000 times with the winner announced on Sunday – Father’s Day.”
Speaking to Buzzfeed, the organization’s social media manager said they never saw some parent going to this length to relieve their child of his frustration.
“It was the first time we’ve seen an entry where a dad went above and beyond shaving his head in solidarity with his child and got a tattoo to build his son’s self-confidence.”
“It’s a truly touching story,” she added.
The father-son duo won the competition, and their picture went viral on social media and was shared and reshared by several big pages on Facebook and Instagram at that time.
“It gained the most attention on Bamf Nation’s Instagram account, where the picture has over 120,000 likes,” Buzzfeed reported.
After winning the contest, Josh took to his Facebook account and thanked everyone who supported him.
“I would like to thank everyone for helping make this happen, and it’s an honor to be titled 2016’s #BestBaldDad.”
“But the truth is I’m no better than any of the other contestants. We are all great fathers that would go to any extent to help our children, so in my eyes, we’re all winners.”