Old folk shave heads for cancer cause

Betty Harding has her head shaved by Ailsa Tiplady to raise funds for the Leukemia Foundation. Photo/John Stone

Betty Harding is such a good sort.

Not only was she the first of five residents to have her head shaved at a combined St Patrick's Day celebration and Leukemia Foundation fundraiser at the Falls Lifestyle Village, she'd spent the week knitting beanies and baking biscuits.

The Falls folk have been in money-making mode for the cancer charity, raising hundreds of dollars during yesterday evening's fun event and expecting more funds to trickle in over the week.

"Everyone brave enough to have their head shaved gets a free beanie," Mrs Harding promised the other village folk as they walked, danced and shuffled their way into the party. Anyone else who wanted a beanie had to pay $10 for it.

"We're not having a number one, we're going all the way," Mrs Harding promised at the start of the shaving frenzy, in case anyone chickened out. "If you had chemotherapy you'd lose all your hair."

Mrs Harding even took along face paints and offered her freshly bald bonce up as a canvas to would-be graffiti artists - for a price.

"Obscenities are allowed," the village's manager and the evening's MC, Graham Tiplady, gleefully announced.

"If they're willing to pay, I'm willing to do it," said Mrs Harding.

Aged 79, she, her husband Peter, 83, Val and Henry Cobald, 82 and 87, and Ken Barber, age not shared, were the five who gave up their hair for the cause.

Mrs Cobald thinks this might be the last time she agrees to have her head shaved. "I'm worried it might not grow back one day," she said.

Up at the Falls, they're wondering if they've set an age record for the Leukemia Foundation's 2014 "World's Greatest Shave".

A few years ago when Project Promise was launched, everyone at the retirement village worked so hard they raised a staggering $11,500 toward the building of an oncology unit at Whangarei Hospital, Mr Tiplady said.

"We'll give anything a good go here," he said.