Year 10 SCOTS PGC College student Tamar Stanfield-Roche had her natural long red locks shaved recently to raise valuable funds for the Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave for a Cure.
Tamar was browsing the website and ventured onto the Shave for a Cure site and decided she wanted to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation. After discussing with her parents that she would like to raise awareness about cancer and help cancer patients, Tamar registered and began fundraising.
“My mum was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and has gone through chemotherapy and radiation treatment, losing her hair. It was difficult to see Mum so unwell but, with the help of doctors and the advanced treatments, she is on the road to recovery,” Tamar said.
“I have been excited for a very worthy cause but at the same time feeling a little nervous, especially when my brother, Kristian has been saying not to do it,” she said.
The Year 12 students organised a lolly guessing competition at 50c each and all the students and staff at SCOTS have been really supportive as well as family, friends and the Warwick community.
In front of her peers at the college assembly, Tamar was a little nervous, especially when Elliese Ackermann and Katelin Schumann were holding the scissors. Her long red locks were cut and will be donated to make a wig and to raise valuable funds.
Local hairdresser, Jessica Carey from JC’s Inspirational Hair, gave her time to shave and style Tamar’s hair after the shave. “I have raised $1500 which is well above what I expected,” she said.
The money raised for the World’s Greatest Shave goes towards research, which is needed to find better treatments and cures for leukaemias, lymphomas, myeloma and related blood disorders and to assist patients and families.
Proud parents Christina and David Stanfield-Roche attended the assembly. “We are very proud of the money Tamar has raised, which assists in research but helps families who can be away from home for long periods because they are supporting their loved ones through the illness.”
The Leukaemia Foundation receives no ongoing government funding, so supporting this event makes the Vision to Cure and Mission to Care possible.
Statistics:
*Every hour of every day, at least one person in Australia is diagnosed with leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma.
*Every two hours, someone loses their life to blood cancer.
*$26 can provide emotional support to help someone overcome the shock of being diagnosed.
*$40 can help improve treat-ments and find cures by funding a PhD student’s laboratory costs for a day.
*$57 can support patients who are too ill to drive by providing a day’s transport to and from treatment.
*$80 can give a regional family who’ve had to move closer to treatment, a place to call home for a night.
