Gleesons ready to shave for charity

Sarah Gleeson (Cameron, until her wedding earlier this year) has had a strong desire to shave her head to raise money for cancer charity for many years.

Tomorrow night, what has been a long time goal will become a reality when Mrs Gleeson, and her husband Josh, both shave their heads at the Crossroads Hotel to raise money for the Cancer Council.

All money raised will actually stay in the local community to support local cancer patients, with the Gleesons to forward the donations received on to the Inala House accommodation and the Cancer Council’s Namoi Valley Transport to Treatment service.

Mrs Gleeson is no stranger to raising money for cancer charity.

Last year she teamed up with her Narrabri Pharmacy colleague Kim Campbell to compete in the Stars of Narrabri Dance For Cancer event which raised more than $70,000 for Cancer Council of NSW and families affected by cancer.

Sarah and Kim won the judges’ choice title with an energetic and professional routine that included several costume changes.

Mrs Gleeson now has her sights set on her next fundraising event.

“I’ve wanted to do this for years,” she told The Courier.

“Earlier on in the year I just decided that after the wedding in September I was going to do it.

“While I was emailing someone about setting up the fundraising page while Josh and I were on our honeymoon Josh said ‘I think I might do it too’.

“He had a think about it for a few days and we decided that we’d both do it.

“We’ve organised all of it together which has been nice.”

Mrs Gleeson said that she was grateful for all the support she and Josh had received from the local community.

“The local businesses have just been so giving,” Mrs Gleeson said.

“Considering that we are in drought it’s quite overwhelming how generous they have been.

“We have a huge range of prizes available on the night for the silent auction, there’s pretty much something for everyone.

“We have beauty gifts all the way to a jump-starter for your car.

“Then there are things like a little speaker, snake repellent, toys, jewellery and lots more.

“Our raffle is then a whole lot of vouchers donated from businesses from around town.”

The event, which has been named ‘Gleeson’s Shave for Cancer’, smashed its initial fundraising goal and then a revised one, and is set to surpass the $2000 mark tomorrow night.

“Our original goal was $500, which we set to not overdo it because we know how tough things are for people at the moment,” Mrs Gleeson said.

“We got that very quickly which was really lovely.

“We then bumped it up to $1000 which we reached just recently and now we’ve got it at $2000.

“The prizes we have for our silent auction are well over $1000 all added up so hopefully we can get to the $2000 on the night.

The event will get under way at 6pm on Friday night, with a silent auction, lucky door prize draw and raffle to precede the head shave at about 8.30pm.