LYLE Taylor has had a colourful career, catching the eye with his goalscoring exploits.

Now the Colchester United striker has hit the hair net – and it’s all in the name of charity.

Taylor has dyed his hair pink again, to raise awareness and money for Cancer Research UK.

It is the fifth time the 34-year-old has carried out his Pink October campaign and he says he is embracing the challenge.

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Taylor said: “In October, I try to raise a little bit of money and a lot of awareness for Cancer Research UK.

“It comes from people in my family and friends of family having suffered and beaten and suffered and lost their lives to cancer.

“So it’s something that’s quite close to my heart and it’s something that I feel I’m privileged enough to use my platform to do.

“I get to walk around like a highlighter for a month, so it’s good fun!”

Taylor unveiled his new hairstyle earlier this week, in Colchester’s 1-1 draw at Port Vale.

(Image: MATT WILKINSON)

The former Nottingham Forest and Charlton Athletic strike says his gesture has been well received by his U’s team-mates and the club.

“I had it done on Sunday and a lot of my team-mates didn’t notice, because when we got on the coach on Monday, I had a snood over my head because my hair wasn’t dry,” said Taylor, who has so far raised an amazing £80,000 for Cancer Research UK.

“I had to redo it on Monday morning, as it came out pastel pink – I was not impressed!

“A lot of the boys didn’t realise until after training in Derby, on the way up to Stoke.

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“After training, I took my snood off my head and I had wet pink hair and a lot of the boys said ‘when did that happen then!’.

“It was well received by the boys and I wouldn’t expect anything else.

“We had conversations about why and I was given an interesting welcome by the Port Vale fans!

“The boys have been really supportive, as have the club.

“Robbie (Cowling) has been fantastic – we sat down about six weeks ago now to talk about what we could do and he’s been brilliant.

“Tim (Waddington) has also been absolutely brilliant and helped with a lot of things including speaking to Macron, who have also been fantastic.

(Image: MATT WILKINSON)

“They’ve gifted a lot of shirts which will be worn in the warm-up for the Salford game and will then be auctioned by the club and I’ve got a few myself that I’ll be doing with some giveaways and things like that, so it’s going to be a good month.

“It’s been bought into exceptionally well by the community, which is effectively what we are, no matter what club we play for.”

Taylor says Cancer Research UK is a charity close to his heart, having sadly lost both his aunt’s mum and nan’s best friend to breast cancer, along with seeing three of his grandparents suffer with bowel and prostate cancer and survive it.

He added: “I think the latest stats are that maybe one in two of us will at some point in our lives have cancer, so it’s prevalent in society,” said Taylor.

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“Ultimately, I do understand the economic situation that’s going on in the world, so I’m not going to be banging my drum saying ‘give me money, give me money’.

“It’s about having a conversation, because I know this affects so many people and you’d be hard pressed to find anybody who hasn’t had a family member or friend who have suffered from it.

“Unfortunately, the reality of it is that people have lost and do lose their lives to it and Cancer Research aim to increase their research and knowledge of cancer with the hope of one day beating it.”

To donate, visit the Cancer Research UK website here