On Sunday evening at the Terrace Bar, a crowd of 35 friends and family watched as Lysiane Dufour, of Dunedin, cut the locks from Mr Crane's head.
The event was 10 months after Mrs Dufour's 17-year-old son Jean-Philippe (JP) died suddenly during a football game from complications caused by an unknown genetic heart condition.
The sponsored hair-cutting raised $3000 for heart research.
"Hopefully, this will help prevent others experiencing the loss this family has experienced,'' Mr Crane, a senior aquarist at the Portobello Marine Laboratory, said.
JP was a family friend of Mr Crane's and ‘‘a very mature young man''.
Mr Crane had wanted to do something to honour JP since his death and had approached the family with his fundraising idea.
Mrs Dufour was "amazed'' by Mr Crane's offer. "It is a privilege to cut his hair,'' she said. "Having a child die like that is unbelievable.
"I want people to be more aware of genetic heart conditions.''
Mrs Dufour's late husband, Professor Jean-Pierre Dufour, died of a suspected heart attack in Lagos, Nigeria, in February, 2007.
Another son had a heart transplant nine years ago after the discovery of what was thought to be damage caused by a virus.
"We never thought it could be genetic. I now think it is important that if there is a problem with one person that they check the other family members,'' Mrs Dufour said.
Heart Foundation heart health advocate Mary Spiers described Mr Crane's fundraising effort as "fantastic''.
