A huge crowd packed The Wicket Bar in Cricket Square on Friday evening for the 7th annual Hannah’s Heroes Big Shave to raise funds for the St Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest private funder of childhood cancer research.

Over 100 men, women, and children shaved their heads to raise funds and demonstrate their solidarity with children fighting cancer who often lose their hair following chemotherapy treatment. Amongst the freshly shorn were the parents of Cayman’s childhood cancer survivors, Gaylene Meeson, whose 12-year-old daughter Hannah was diagnosed with medulloblastoma in 2012; Trent Grant, father  to leukemia survivor Tayden, age 12; Woody Foster, father to 11-year-old leukemia survivor, Charli; Tommy Ebanks whose daughter Mimi was diagnosed with ependymoma at 6 months; Walter and Donna Capasso, whose daughter Allie is a survivor of Adrenal Cortical Carcinoma and Tom Sperandeo whose 8-year-old son, Saylor,  is currently undergoing treatment for leukemia.  Also present were cancer survivors, Beau Shields (9),  Ava Paige Rico (9) and Annabelle Reading (8).

His Excellency The Governor Mr. Martyn Roper welcomed the crowd praising the Cayman community’s continued support of fundraising for research and officially opened the event; he was joined on stage by Woody Foster who led the audience in a prayer celebrating childhood and Ms. Kelly Forebaugh, Director of Hero Funds from the St Baldrick’s Foundation in California,  whose travel to the event was sponsored by local firm, Conyers.

Mr. Roper addressed the gathered crowd before helping to shave Mr. Foster’s head.

“It’s a privilege to be amongst so many brave individuals and families who are such an inspiration to all of us here. We have heard so much about The Big Shave and we hope our presence here will show our very strong support for this wonderful event and encourage others to support much-needed research”.

Now in its seventh year, Hannah’s Heroes is one of the most successful shave events in the world for St Baldrick’s,  raising over US $2.3 million for childhood cancer research.

Since 2005, St Baldrick’s has donated more than $278 million  in funding for research  grants to more than 358 institutions in 28 countries.

Top fundraising teams included Maples and Balder ($42,733), Dart ($26,871) , Ogier Fund-Razors ($18,927),  Cayman Prep & High School ($16,005), KPMG ($13,167) and Fosters ($11,624).

15 children shaved on Friday including students from Cayman International School and their teacher, John Lane who collectively raised over $24,000.   The crowd was energized by the return appearance of the Firebalds team made up of 13 from the Cayman Islands Fire Service and moved by the  story of 73 year old shavee Mrs. Joan Austin, who following her recent breast cancer diagnosis made the courageous decision to join the event to raise funds for childhood cancer research.  Mrs Austin has raised over $6,700.

At the time of press, this year’s Big Shave has raised US $284,941 bringing the fundraising total over the seven Big Shaves to US$ $2,358,159.87. Organisers reported that funds are still coming in with several more fundraising events planned over the next few days including a coin drive at Cayman Prep & High Primary school and donations at the register in Fosters supermarkets throughout September.

Donations can still be made by visiting: http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/hannahsheroes