WHEN Lisa Turner received the shocking news that she had breast cancer, she decided the only thing she could do was fight back.

Knowing that she’d soon be losing her long locks to chemotherapy treatment, she opted to have her hair shaved into a dramatic Mohican hair-do.

The deed was done at a party at The Rod and Line pub in Tideford, south east Cornwall, close to where the 38-year-old mother of two lived with her family before moving to Tavistock last October.

‘I knew I had to be shaved and the first hairstyle that came into my head was a punk one,’ said Lisa, a reflexologist and artist. ‘When I knew I was facing chemotherapy I suddenly got this energy. I felt like I wanted to fight and the punk thing just seemed to encapsulate that. I feel like I can take it all on.’

She said that the head shave party had really helped her children, her daughter of 11 and a son of nine as her friends and family gathered and fireworks were let off by the landlord.

‘It was a way to have fun with it,’ she said. ‘Life goes on and if you can take control of little bits of it and make it your own then it helps, and it is about allowing your friends to support you. At the pub alone, we made £650 odd and that was just on the night. I felt it was a nice way to let people in and say I’m OK.’

She has so far raised £2,000, which she plans to share between three charities – Macmillan Cancer Support, the Little Princess Trust and Tree Sisters, a charity working to reforest the tropics.

She added that she had received lots of help from the community in Tavistock, with the charity shops helping her put together an outfit for her head shave party.

‘The community here have been lovely and the charity shops have been wonderful,’ she said.

Lisa expressed thanks to hairdresser Lorraine Cosgrove from Saltash, schools Tavistock Primary and Saltash.Net and Sisters Hairdressers in Tavistock and staff at Tavistock charity shops The Children’s Hospice, Sue Ryder and Oxfam.

• Pictures show Lisa’s locks before and after her head shave.