A TEACHER and three students at Kerang Christian College who took part in the World’s Greatest Shave last week have been blown away by the financial support from the community.
Last week teacher Caz Anderson joined Year 11 students Abby Tilley, Chenoa Cutter and Bridie Macneish in shaving their hair off after raising over $5900 for the Leukaemia Foundation.
The college community was impacted by the devastation of leukaemia when they lost 14-year-old student Joelle Bangay to acute myeloid leukaemia late last year.
Joelle, who had had a faulty TP53 gene, developed Li-Fraumeni syndrome and died in November.
While Abby, Chenoa and Bridie had been planning to take part in shave for a cure for a long time, Joelle’s death gave it extra special meaning.
For Miss Anderson, it was the push to again submit to a shave.
“Once we started fundraising, the response was amazing,” she said.
“We are so proud of our college family and the wider community and their willingness to join us to support such an amazing cause.
“The shave day was made even more special by having Joelle’s family attend and participate, helping some of the girls to cut off their braids.”
“It was definitely pretty cool,” said Abby. “I didn’t think we’d get that much (money).”
Each student had quite long hair, so it was a feat to have their friends and family cut off each braid with the help of local hairdresser Danielle McKenzie, who took on the final shave.
The girls have donated their hair to the foundation to be made into wigs for people going through chemotherapy.
After several of her students challenged her to take it even further, Miss Anderson had earlier agreed that if enough was raised she would shave her head with a razor.
That goal was quickly met and, with more prompting by her students, a new goal was set that if reached, she would have her eyebrows waxed off too.
True to her word, Miss Anderson allowed Mrs McKenzie and her students to shave her head down to the skin and remove her eyebrows. But for her, it was all worth it.
For the girls, taking part in the World’s Greatest Shave had been something they had discussed for several years.
Abby had always wanted the opportunity to “do something good for the world” and her long hair gave her that opportunity.
Chenoa had seen someone at her church take part in the World’s Greatest Shave when she was six years old and since then, it had been a goal of hers.
The good friends discussed many times their plan to shave their heads for the Leukaemia Foundation and as they entered Year 11 this year the time felt right.
Bridie decided to join in.
“Cancer sucks. That’s my reason,” she said.
For Miss Anderson, it was a simple decision to join the students. She has taken part in the World’s Greatest Shave several times before, the last time was in 2018 following the loss of her beloved father, who died of a blood cancer.
“It is a particularly personal cause for me now as my siblings and I are genetically predisposed to developing the same cancer that took our dad,” she said.
“So, the more we can do to support blood cancer research and treatment, the better.”
Abby, Chenoa and Bridie said they could not have gone through it without the wholehearted support of their families, who came to cheer them on as they made their pledge a reality.
The girls thanked donors, Miss Anderson, college staff member and organiser Leanne Pryor, and Mrs McKenzie for donating her skills.
