Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

Today there are more than 135,000 Australians that are currently living with blood cancer, and sadly one in three of those people will have lost their cancer battle within five years of diagnosis. Blood cancers are the second most common cause of cancer death. This is why the World's Greatest Shave campaign exists, to send a powerful message of hope and relief to those affected by this terrible disease. I recently attended Grace Lutheran College in Rothwell in the Petrie electorate to attend their annual World's Greatest Shave fundraising event.

Since 2009 the Grace community have raised a whopping $378,516 for the Leukaemia Foundation. Televised by Channel Nine's Today show, 42 high school students and teachers lined up on St Patrick's Day, last Friday, to shave their heads in support of those living with leukaemia, with numerous others donating a gold coin to colour their hair and local hairdressers donating their time for a worthy cause. The highest fundraisers of the day were students Fraser and Declan, who each raised over $3,000, and Nicholas, who raised over $2,000. I met a young woman, Taleah, who voluntarily cut off her lower-back-length ponytail and shaved her head. She raised over $1,600. I want to highlight Kylie Duyzer, the principal, who let me colour her hair.

See this speech in context