Vehicles with eyelashes and fathers with make-up

Such was my shock at seeing a car with womanly attributes attached to its front headlights that I nearly crashed.

For men of all ages, prominent headlamps and fluttering eyelashes are a lethal combination in terms of being driven to distraction.

I was planning to write a column about the weird-looking car this week, but then I saw something even more disturbing - a picture of my father wearing make-up.

It reminded me a bit of the car with eyelashes, but with a significantly reduced top speed.

Many of you may have guessed that my dad was wearing make-up as part of the selfie craze to raise money for cancer research. My sister was also in the photo without make-up. I just about recognised her.

Joking aside, I think the idea of using selfies to raise money for cancer charities is an excellent one.

A few week’s ago in this column I commented that men getting their legs waxed for charity had become rather old hat. I’m glad to see my theory upheld with this back to basics fundraising campaign.

The idea behind the ‘no make-up selfies’ is that women post pictures of themselves with no make-up on to social networking sites and in turn pledge money to cancer research while nominating others to do the same.

The fact the phenomenon grew organically speaks volumes. This wasn’t an orchestrated campaign dreamt up by someone in PR. This was real women, making a difference, and striking the fear of redundancy into staff at the make-up counters in department stores up and down the UK.

Not wanting to be left out in the cold, men soon got on board with a campaign of their own involving blokes putting to dubious use the make-up the females in their households had discarded.

Whatever a person’s motivation for doing it, the bottom line is the craze has helped to raise more than £2 million for research into one of the cruellest and most heartbreaking diseases on the planet.

Up until last week I’d hated selfies and once the fundraising drive has ended I’ll go back to hating selfies, but for now I’ll tolerate them as a means to an end, like using a former abattoir as an animal sanctuary.

People have expressed surprise that I didn’t get involved myself given my track record of wearing make-up which includes allowing the girls in ad department to doll me up on a night out and getting a make-over in Debenham’s for an ad feature in the paper. One both occasions I was left blushing because of advertising.

As for my dad’s foray into the world of foundation and mascara, I can reveal that make-up isn’t the silliest thing he’s had stuck on his face.

When I was just a little boy I crept up on my sleeping dad and plonked one of those little rubber suction arrows on his forehead.

It was funny at the time and became even funnier when he couldn’t remove it.

When he finally prised the arrow off his head, he was left with a circular red mark on his forehead that made it look like he was caught in the sights of a sniper. You can still see it if you look hard enough.

While I commend my dad for his fundraising efforts in aid of cancer research, the problem now is every time I see him I can’t shake the image of him wearing make-up.

It isn’t helped by the fact that he’s continuing to wear eyeshadow and lipstick on a daily basis.