By Danielle Galvin
TEN years ago Pakenham’s Jo Smith got a melanoma removed from a muscle in her arm.
This year, to mark what’s been a tough decade for the Smith family, Jo will ditch her long locks and shave her head.
“I wanted to give a bit back this year,” she said. “2012 – the year of giving back.”
Her goal is to raise $5000 for the World’s Greatest Shave to support blood cancer patients.
“I’m not really nervous, but I do have hair halfway down my back, so it will be a change,” she said.
Since her diagnosis, Jo was lucky and didn’t have to undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment.
“They got it out the first time. I was very lucky,” she said.
So far, she’s managed to raise $1200, but Jo is hoping for some more support.
“We’ve had a pretty tough 10 years. Both of our boys were IVF. We had 13 attempts to have them,” she said.
“I realised life is pretty short.”
When she told her husband late last year that she wanted to shave her hair, Jo said her husband was amazing and said, “good on ya.”
“He just said he was proud of me,” she said.
Jo’s children always have their hats with them and they know about sunscreen.
“I have quite fair English skin,” she said.
“I remember growing up and we used to go to Pambula. I’d bake the first day, burn and then peel. It was really stupid. I did it every year.”
