Since he featured in the Rotorua Daily Post on December 29, Lee remains mostly immobile but with intensive daily physio sessions he can now lift his arms a little, wiggle a few fingers and has feeling in places he didn't previously.
While still unable to feed himself, Lee is considerably more mobile than he was.
Apart from his full-on physio, his mobility is also thanks to the electric wheelchair he now zooms about in.
It's enabled him to attend last week's Ohinemutu vigil for the victims of Christchurch's mosque shootings and take his much missed dog, Sunshine, for walks with his partner, Kam West.
West and a group of supporters were with him for yesterday's shave-off, the shears wielded by Wilson Brothers barber Glen Atkinson.
Lee planned to mark his new look with a visit to his mother's Kauae cemetery grave site.
"I might be physically impaired but I am alive. Leukaemia victims like my mum aren't.
"When I heard about Shave for a Cure I thought I must do something meaningful for it. It was time for a haircut and for the beard to come off so I combined getting rid of them by helping people worse off than I am.
"I will recover eventually, a lot of them won't."
Lee's fundraiser netted more than $700. He's thrilled.
"I've had wonderful support from within the hospital and friends for this and right through my recovery process. It's a privilege for me to support leukaemia and blood cancer patients in return."
His next goal is to be at the Rugby World Cup in Japan. He had bought tickets before GBS, a rare auto-immune disorder, immobilised him last July.
