Driven by family cancer shock, Hedland student Henry Lockyer loses locks in front of St Cecilia’s classmates

Most people don’t celebrate their 12th birthday by having their heads shaved in front of their whole school, but Year 6 student Henry Lockyer isn’t most people. After cancer touched both his family and the St Cecilia’s Primary School community, Henry decided last year he would grow his curly hair long and shave it all off in an effort to raise money to fight the disease. Last week, St Cecilia’s buzzed with anticipation before Henry’s big shave, and students sported their own crazy hairdos in solidarity with him. However, nobody was quite as supportive as St Cecilia’s vice-principal Mandy Sheen, who said at an earlier school assembly she too would give her hair a big chop if Henry met his fundraising goal. Henry did meet his goal, and Ms Sheen said although she had been thinking about it for a while, Henry inspired her to do it. “For someone his age to have the initiative to identify a way he could help was remarkable,” she said. St Cecilia’s principal Rob Palladino underwent chemotherapy at the beginning of the year after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. “When Henry’s parents came to ask whether the school would support Henry and host the shave, we were more than happy, particularly with what our principal Rob had been through,” Ms Sheen said. Applause and squeals of excitement filled the room as Henry and Ms Sheen’s locks fell to the ground at the event held at St Cecilia’s Primary School. Henry said he did it to help people with cancer and their families. “There’s lots of people who suffer from cancer, I did this to donate money for research to hopefully find ways to cure it,” he said. At the time of writing, Henry had raised more than $4000 for cancer research. Cancer Council 13 11 20