Bart Lind was 13 when he lost his mother to cancer four years ago.
As the clippers shaved the 17-year-old's head bald in front of his fellow Taieri College pupils last Wednesday, he thought back to what it must have been like for his mother to lose her hair during chemotherapy treatment.
''Inwardly, she probably struggled with losing her hair, but outwardly, she embraced it,'' Bart said.
''It started off as breast cancer and then it just spread everywhere.
''It was pretty tough seeing her so sick, but she kept so upbeat, so I was oblivious to it at the time.
''She was only in her mid-40s. She was too young.''
Bart said his mother Zoe Christian died in 2009 and he thought shaving his head along with a group of fellow year 13 pupils at Taieri College was a great way to pay tribute to what his mother, and others with cancer, went through.
''It's a pretty tough ordeal what they go through. I want to show respect for that.''
Pupils at the school raised about $1500 during Shave for a Cure by collecting donations and charging pupils to watch the great shave-off in the hall.
The funds raised will go to Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand.
''This is the first time I've done this. But I'm looking to do it on an annual basis now ... if my hair grows back in time.''
