Shave for a Cure event raises 13 Monkey in my Chair kits for kids with cancer

Neen Kennedy - without hair or eyebrows but happy to have helped 13 kids with cancer.

The day after Covid-19 Level 4 lockdown was announced Neen Kennedy sat at home and had her head shaved.

It was to be a bigger event ... a Shave for a Cure event, in a Waipawa hair salon with an audience.

But that was the plan before Covid-19.

Neen Kennedy with her trademark ponytail before the shave.

Kennedy's eldest daughter Amy, now 31, was diagnosed with cancer at just eight days old. In light of this Kennedy decided last month to try and raise $1000 for young leukaemia and blood cancer patients.

"That amount will buy 10 monkeys," Kennedy said.

The monkeys are part of the Monkey in my Chair programme designed to keep children connected to their classmates while they undergo treatment.

When a child is diagnosed with blood cancer or a blood condition, treatment often starts right away and this can lead to absences from school which can be unsettling for the patient, their classmates and teacher.

Each Monkey in My Chair kit comes with two fluffy monkeys — one big and one small — plus a range of educational books, teacher guides and LBC resources.

When a young person is away from school, the bigger of the two monkeys sits in the student's chair, while the smaller monkey keeps the patient company while they are missing their friends.

Classmates are encouraged to include the big monkey in lessons and put messages and news into the monkey's bright yellow backpack, to be shared with the young person in hospital. Each kit costs $100.

Kennedy says in the week after she signed up for Shave for a Cure she was worried she wouldn't even get enough donations for one kit.

"Then the donations started to roll in and I offered to shave my eyebrows off if we went over the $1000."

With the head shave confirmed and the eyebrows in severe jeopardy, Kennedy was to have the deed done at a Waipawa hair salon last Tuesday. But the lockdown turned it into a quieter event, live streamed on Facebook from her lounge.

"I was regretting my life choices as the shaving started. But fittingly my daughter Amy got to do the shave as we are now on lockdown. It made sense that a kid that has spent so many hours in the cancer ward got to do the shaving.

"I was hoping to help 10 kids ... we did 13. Awesome effort all around."