A WOMAN from Princetown has braved the shave for charity during a recent Macmillan Coffee Morning at Fox Tor Café.

Litza Harford shaved her hair not only to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support but also to celebrate five years of being cancer free.

Towards the end of 2012 Litza had a major cancer scare. She was told by doctors to ‘enjoy Christmas’ — but in January 2013 she underwent almost ten hours of substantial surgery to remove pre-cancerous cells.

‘I had intensive surgery and I am here to tell the story,’ said Litza, who works at Princetown Village Shop.

‘I decided to raise money for the charity and to say thank you to everyone involved — and to also say to myself “look at what you have been through and how far you have come”. Plus I wanted to give hope to people and say that there is always hope.’

The coffee morning at Princetown’s Fox Tor Café on September 28 was a huge success. The café sales, which included a raffle and a guess the amount of sweets in a jar and guess the weight of the cake competitions, came to £1,368. Along with Litza’s head shave spondorship money of over £700, more than £2,000 will be presented to Macmillan.

Café owners Dave and Abbi Openshaw took to social media to say: ‘As always we could not hold these days without the continued support of our staff and families who gave up their time for free and baked like demons!’

Litza added: ‘Thank you to everyone for their support — to raise over £700 is amazing.’

l As well as helping with the medical needs of people affected by cancer, Macmillan looks after the social, emotional and practical impact cancer can have and campaigns for better cancer care.

Macmillan Cancer Support’s goal is to reach and improve the lives of everyone living with cancer in the UK.