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Westchester Doctors, Nurses Grow Beards To Battle Cancer

CORTLANDT MANOR, NY (CBSNewYork) - The doctors and nurses at one hospital in Westchester County have been looking a bit scraggly these days. But there's a good reason.

WCBS 880's Alex Silverman On The Story

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Dr. Bill Higgins says yes, the patients have been asking questions.

"We look like homeless people. We look terrible," he said.

More than 30 doctors and nurses at Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt Manor have been raising money for the new cancer wing there.

"It's been a lot of explaining. We look like this because we're doing something for a good reason instead of, you know, we're a bunch of lazy slobs who don't feel like shaving," he told WCBS 880 reporter Alex Silverman.

And the whiskers have worked. $30,000 worth will come off tonight at a bar in Peekskill.

"We have a professional shaver coming in, shaving off all our beards, and if this guy doesn't shave off my beard I think my wife will," said Higgins.

He says even one of his patients who has prostate cancer insisted he give a little something.

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