Terry Fox’s dad Rolly came out to Topham Elementary school last month, to help shave off Grade 5 student Keenan Manning’s long blonde locks.
Keenan has been working hard for months, raising $7,000 for the Terry Fox Foundation by gathering pledges, holding a movie night at the Clova Theatre and selling his “Shave to Save” glow in the dark bracelets he made. He had numerous T-shirts made up, including one for Fox that he wore for the shave event.
On April 26, 17 students joined Keenan and “shaved to save.” They were able to raise more than $2,000 from their pledges.
It was after two members of Keenan’s family were affected by cancer, the 10-year-old decided he needed to do something to help.
“I started researching Terry Fox and his journey on the Marathon of Hope and this inspired me to shave my hair to be used for a wig for a chemo patient,” said Keenan. “I decided to challenge my fellow students at Topham to raise money for cancer research.”
When Fox was told about what Keenan wanted to do, he was so touched that he volunteered to come and shave his hair for him,” said Keenan’s mom Kathy. “What an honour. The kids at school [were] pumped.”
Now that Keenan is bald, his smile hasn’t left him. He’s happy he could try and help and his parents are very proud, said Kathy.