Schoolgirl raises $2400 for cancer in a few days

Ciara Maher before and after she shaved off her locks for bowel cancer awareness. Photo / Greg Bowker

Ciara Maher is thrilled that shaving her head for bowel cancer has raised over $2400 in under a week.

The 14-year-old Howick College student had cut her hair in a fundraising gesture to help reduce New Zealand's high rate of bowel cancer.

She had set a target of $2000, but with that being achieved within five days, she was now hoping to get over the $3000 mark.

"I'm feeling pretty good about it actually," Ciara said yesterday.

"At the start I felt pretty weird, my head felt it was lighter and I had to get used to the fact that I actually had no hair."

She had her head shaved on December 6, the birthday of her grandmother, Pauline Barclay, who died of bowel cancer aged 52.

Ciara said since shaving her head, she has also been receiving gifts from friends ranging from a bandana to biscuits and chocolates.

She had planned to speak at the school assembly about bowel cancer but was not able to because yesterday was the last school day and the assembly was a formal one.

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the developed world, with more than 3000 cases and about 1200 deaths annually.

Ciara had set up a Givealittle internet donations page, where money is still coming in.

The money will go to Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa, a charity which supports patients and is lobbying the Government to extend the Waitemata District Health Board bowel cancer screening scheme into a national programme.