A MAN who suffered a stroke and lost two fiancees to cancer is parting with his moustache after 37 years to raise cash for two causes close to his heart.

Neil Orr, 51, has had a moustache since his schooldays but decided to shave it off in aid of the stroke ward and Ardgowan Hospice.

Neil, a roads superintendent with the council, was struck down by a carotid artery dissection in 2012 and had to be rushed to hospital immediately.

The condition involves separation of the layers of the artery wall supplying oxygen-bearing blood to the brain.

Neil said: "I had had severe headaches and the doctors thought I had sinusitis and gave me antibiotics."

But during that week a colleague noticed his eye had started to droop and he went back to his GP.

Neil said: "He took my blood pressure and asked for my mobile number.

"He spoke to a consultant friend of his and called me back and told me to go the hospital.

"I thought I was just in for a check-up and then he told me to get into a bed.

"I had a CAT scan and lumbar puncture then a neurosurgeon came down from Glasgow and asked for another scan with dye into it, and it showed up a tear in the cartoid artery.

"The doctors were worried that the blood would clot and get to the brain so I was prescribed Warfarin and my blood had to be monitored every two hours."

Neil was in hospital for two weeks but as his condition was spotted just in time he thankfully made a full recovery.

The ordeal was another trauma for the roads boss, who tragically lost two would-be-wives to cancer within seven years of each other.

Neil lost first love Anne Ferguson in 1999, at the age of 40.

The couple had been together nine years and were making plans for the future when Anne was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996.

It spread to her liver and she sadly passed away three years later.

He found love again with Margaret McCafferty and got engaged for a second time but Margaret was struck down with lung cancer in 2006.

Neil said: "She was diagnosed on Valentine's Day and died in April."

Neil said his losses were very hard to accept at the time.

Neil said: "I thought after Anne died, why me?

"But time is a healer and life goes on.

"I thought when I met Margaret I was very lucky, not everyone gets to love someone once never mind twice."

He now wants to raise funds for the hospice in memory of Anne and Margaret and for the stroke ward to recognise the care he received there.

Neil said: "I wanted to do this for the hospice and the hospital.

"There's probably not a family in Inverclyde who hasn't been touched by either of these places."

Neil says he's a bit anxious about losing his 'tache.

He said: "I've had it since school, it's a part of me.

"My nieces and nephews have been at me for ages to get it shaved off, so I thought I may as well do it for charity so someone can get the benefit from it.

"They said it will take 10 years off me.

"I'm quite tanned and they joked that my skin will be white underneath."

Neil's Big Shave Off is planned at Esquires Gents Barbers, 172 Dunlop Street, on Wednesday October 24.

He hopes to raise £1,000 to buy walking aids for patients at the stroke unit and help pay for a range of services available to help hospice patients

If anyone wants to make a donation they should make a payment to Clydesdale Bank, West Blackhall Street, Greenock sort code 82-65-06 account number 7003945.