DREADLOCKS SET TO FALL FOR A CAUSE
A BRINSMEAD woman is auctioning off the chance to snip sections of her decadeold dreadlocks, joining thousands of Australians shaving their heads for the cause of blood cancer this week.
Montana Purtle is shaving her dreadlocks to show her solidarity towards the 135,000 people living with blood cancer as part of the World’s Greatest Shave, an iconic fundraising campaign by the Leukaemia
Foundation.
“I have been growing them for about 10 years. I knew if I were to snip it off it would have to be for a cause,” Ms Purtle said.
She said when she first heard of the campaign the statistics struck a chord with her.
“I heard about the 25th anniversary of the World’s Greatest Shave on the radio and I personally wasn’t aware of the statistics before that,” she said.
“More than 135,000 families at the moment are
dealing with blood cancer.”
Individuals were to snip off bits of her hair at a “shaving event” on Saturday afternoon at Jimmy’s Burgers, Ms Purtle’s workplace.
“I’m trying to auction bits of my hair – people come up, buy it and snip off. I’ll be finishing off with a number two shave,” she said.
Ms Purtle started a fundraiser on the foundation page last month in a bid to raise $3000 for the cause and is just a few hundred dollars away from her goal.
Tim Murphy, general manager blood cancer partnerships at the Leukaemia Foundation, said this was a major fundraising opportunity for people to show love and care to fellow Australians facing the challenge of blood cancer.
“The World’s Greatest Shave is how we are funded,” Mr Murphy said.
“This year we have 18,000 people dying, cutting or shaving their head all over Australia. In Queensland, the number is a little over 3500,” she said.