Our Shave team took the name ‘the Hume Shavers’ after the Hume electorate we all live in and given the broad range of community groups we come from. We initially comprised of a serving local Police officer (myself), the Primary School Principal of Goulburn North Public School, a student of Goulburn North Public School – Lucy W and Mulwaree High School student Emily W.
Lucy first floated the idea to shave with her mum, thinking of her Gran and battle with cancer a few years back. Also in her mind was her great aunt that passed from cancer, and her great uncle, who recently battled and beat bowel cancer.
Foremost in her mind was that her gran lost her hair during treatment and Lucy remembered her sadness during this time, being an appearance-proud woman.
She asked if I would shave with her as she was frightened of being up there alone and that she may be bullied for her choice to shave. I agreed and approached the principal of her school to see if they would host the event. Not only did they agree to host and support her, the Principal Leonie agreed to shave her head with Lucy and I! Who could say no to a motivated empathetic and beautiful little girl like that!
Whilst having her teeth cleaned Lucy shared her story with the dentist, the receptionist from Goulburn Family and Cosmetic Dental Practice, Nadia, who agreed to shave should we reach $10000.
Emily, Lucy’s 14 old sister was not quite brave enough to shave but agreed to cut an inch of her hair for every hundred dollars raised and if more than $12000 was raised in total cut to her shoulders.
As the shave date came closer a number of other community members came on board. We also had teacher John Webb (shaving his beard and head if we made over $12000) Lambert Karate Dojo Sensei David Lambert and I, each indicating that Lucy and her bravery was the reason for their decision to come on board.
Emily cut to her shoulders keeping with her earlier promise. The school hosted an ice cream and crazy hair day to compliment our fundraising efforts, passing a bucket around on the day to smash the $12000 mark.
We chose to raise money for ACRF as it is a multifaceted cancer research foundation. Many charities support a particular cancer type and provide support for those impacted by caner. The fundamental difference with the ACRF is that it is a research foundation that targets prevention of cancer, and provides hope for cures.
Government funding does not sufficiently support what is one of the biggest killers of our time. Without research cures will not be found, lives will not be saved.
ACRF would like to thank the incredible Hume Shavers for their efforts to help Outsmart Cancer. If you’re interested in shaving for cancer research, find out more here.
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