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Alberni woman 'baves the shave' for cancer

Port Alberni resident Melanie Anderson is going to shorn her long locks off on Friday and donate her hair and proceeds to cancer charity.
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Melanie Anderson plans to loose her long locks on Friday. Anderson is donating her hair and proceeds for cutting it to charity for cancer.

Shorning long locks of hair for charity is little inconvenience when compared to what someone fighting cancer faces, Melanie Anderson said.

The Walmart photo department employee is having her hair shaved “down to the wood” in the store’s parking lot on Friday and is donating her locks and proceeds for doing so to charity, she said.

The move coincides with the Cops For Cancer Tour de Rock, the riders from which arrive on in Port Alberni Friday afternoon.

Anderson said she’d considered losing he locks before. She didn’t commit last year though because she was performing in plays and had long hair.

“I’m not performing this year though so I decided this has to be done,” she said.

Anderson is donating her hair to Locks for Love, which makes wigs for cancer children in Canada, Anderson said.

Several of Anderson’s family members and friends have been touched by Cancer, she said.

“My mother had skin cancer, and both my grandmothers died of complications related to cancer,” Anderson said.

But she also thinks about three local children: James Albrecht, Brett Wasylyniuk and Carmen Steinbach, who have battled or are battlling cancer.

“They suffer, and this is easy to do compared to what they go through,” she said.

Albrecht is in Vancouver but will be back in Alberni in time to cut one of Anderson’s braids off, she said.

Anderson has reached her goal of raising $500 for her head shave. She’ll continue to take donations until Friday though, she said.

“A lot of people want to contribute to charity,” Anderson said. “This gives them a reason to.”

reporter@albernivalleynews.com

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