Cade Lucas
After years of being pestered by her youngest daughter, Williamstown mother, Rowena Gray, finally relented.
“She actually said to me, “mum I’m in year six, this is my year, I should be able to do it,” recalled Rowena of the moment earlier this year when she decided to give in and grant 11-year-old Natalie permission.
Permission to do what? Get her ears pierced? Stay out past her bed time? Open a Tik Tok account?
No, Natalie just wanted to get her hair cut, or to be precise, get her hair cut off. All of it.
And now with her mother’s blessing, that’s what will happen this Friday, March 28, when Natalie’s strawberry blonde locks are shaved off as part of the World’s Greatest Shave fundraiser for cancer research.
“Yeah I’m excited but a little bit nervous though,” said Natalie of how she was feeling about her big shave, which will happen on stage at a specially convened assembly at Williamstown North Primary School.
“I’ve never done anything like this before.”
Any apprehension Natalie might have about shaving her head is far outweighed by her motivation for doing so.
Four years ago, Natalie’s father, Daniel, died from brain cancer.
While Rowena’s two older daughters, Emily and Rebecca, didn’t pester their mum to do the world’s greatest shave, it wasn’t long after her father’s death that Natalie began to.
“It didn’t surprise me that this was something she wanted to do,” Rowena said.
“She’s always one whose wanted to help others wherever she can. She’s got a big heart.”
Natalie said witnessing her father suffer was the reason she was so determined to do the greatest shave.
“Ever since it’s been really important to me that no one else goes through something like that.”
And even with her hair still intact, Natalie’s already gone someway towards achieving that aim, raising more than $8000 so far.
With a few days still to go and the school running a fundraising raffle and a barbeque on Friday to coincide with her shave, Natalie hopes to raise more than $10,000, all of which will go towards leukaemia research.
To donate: www.worldsgreatestshave.com/fundraisers/nataliegray/2025
