ALTON church warden Jenny Lawrence put her fears to one side to ‘brave the shave’ on New Year’s Day andraise a whopping £2,170 for Cancer Research UK.

Having lost a close relative to cancer early last year, followed over the last four weeks by a fellow church warden and a parish priest, 72-year-old Jenny felt compelled to try to do something to support research work into the disease.

Not warming to the idea of a coffee morning, and not wishing to run a marathon, Jenny settled on what could have been her worst nightmare by deciding to challenge her courage and brave the shave.

Despite a lifelong fear of baldness, developed after storybook tales of bald children frightened her as a girl, Jenny took the courageous step of having her hair shorn.

Hoping to play the sympathy card, Jenny chose a particularly festive but cold time of year in the hope that she might attract a good amount of sponsorship.

A churchwarden for St Lawrence Church, she invited friends and family to the parish room on January 1 to take turns in lopping off her locks. The first cut was made by her seven-year-old granddaughter, Lily, and the whole event was conducted by the Reverend Andrew Micklefield in what turned out to be something of a party atmosphere.

Having been hacked at by around seven different pairs of hands, including daughter Caitlin who, according to Jenny, had jokingly viewed it as payment “for all the bad haircuts she had received as a child”, the actual shave was completed by Clare Westwood from The Cutting Room in Alton.

Describing her new look as “chilly” – especially around the neck, and with the addition of half a dozen woolly hats to her wardrobe, Jenny is now facing the world in the knowledge that she has achieved her ambition.

She thanked everyone who has supported her fundraising challenge.

To donate, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/jenny-lawrence5.

Money raised for Cancer Research UK is used to support pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer and has helped save millions of lives. Over the past 40 years survival has doubled, thanks to the great progress research has made.