It’s not often you combine fruit, cake and tea with haircuts, but the Shepparton South Community Centre did just that.
The centre’s Biggest Morning Tea combined three fundraisers — the Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea, the Luekemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave and Wigs for Kids.
Friends and family united for a heartfelt morning of sharing stories and raising awareness.
Maree McKenna told her story of remarkable resilience and strength battling breast cancer.
She explained how she went for surgery and treatments, even as the persistent disease refused to disappear; popping up again and again from one surgery to the next.
Mrs McKenna’s fight with cancer was a long one, and not over yet — she joked that she had another scan and specialist appointment booked that afternoon.
“The most important thing is early detection, be aware of your body. With breast cancer, there are so many different triggers,” Mrs McKenna said.
Signs of breast cancer include lumps in the breast, changes to size, shape and skin, prolonged breast pain, as well as swelling and pain in the armpit.
It is recommended that people aged 50 to 74 years have a mammogram every two years.
“The best thing about these biggest morning teas is they raise awareness of these cancers in hope that one day, everyone will be cured, with the great doctors and medical research we have,” Mrs McKenna said.
“Whatever you do, hold on to hope.”
Then out came the razor, and Zoe Barbary took her seat for the World’s Greatest Shave, brimming with an excitement that almost matched the levels of second-hand nervousness around the room.
It was not the first time Ms Barbary, a 19-year-old nurse assistant at GV Health, had been in this chair.
She had her hair cut to her ears in 2020, donating the length to Wigs for Kids.
Wigs for Kids recycles donated hair and gifts it directly to children suffering from hair loss as a result of chemotherapy.
“I know a lot of people who have had cancer, and have seen what they go through,” Ms Barbary said.
“My godmother and some close family friends have had cancer, and working as a nurse assistant I see it every day at work.
“I want to give them confidence, because hair really is a big part of that.
“Hair grows back, so to be able to give it to somebody that needs it, to gift somebody confidence, means more than it ever could on your head.”
Ms Barbary and the community centre have raised $550 so far. Her hair will be donated to Wigs for Kids.
Donations to support the community centre and Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea can be made here: Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea - Melanie Domaschenz