CATH NEWS REPORT:
Image from the Sydney Morning Herald
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Students at St Ignatius College, Riverview, in Sydney have shaved their heads to support a teacher who underwent surgery for breast cancer, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
They called it ''Rough Heads for Rosie''. More than $5000 was raised - in part to pay for help at Mrs Comastri's home.Last week, Mrs Rosanna Comastri, 41, underwent surgery for the cancer that had been diagnosed only a few days earlier. The same day, 20 students shaved their heads - but by Monday almost all 200 boys in year 12 at the school had submitted to clippers.
''I was devastated and terrified,'' said Mrs Comastri, 41, who teaches English and is the assistant year adviser to year 12. ''Cancer is such a frightening word and frightening concept. To know there was this passion at school has just given me strength and a powerful conviction to conquer this terrible, terrible moment in my life.''
A reluctant late participant, but moved by the students, the school's headmaster, Shane Hogan, has had his head shaved.
"I struggled to convince the boys that it wasn't a good idea - that it was winter; 200 boys with crew cuts could be a bit imposing, more like a chain gang than a school. But the wave of emotion - you don't stand in the way of young men and in the end I decided I would support their passion.''
''We've got a lot of rules about length of hair and collar and tie ... Ordinarily, you couldn't have anything shorter than a four-comb or five-comb but more often than not we're trying to convince boys to have a haircut," he said, adding: "This will keep them inside the rules for a couple of months".
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