STAFF and residents at the Casey Gardens Residential Village in Narre Warren are counting down the days until the World’s Greatest Shave.

Heather Allen will join five others to raise money and awareness for cancer by shaving and colouring their hair this weekend.

The Narre Warren mother has spent the past seven months growing her hair.

“I wanted to make sure it was really long before the big shave,” she said.

Ms Allen said she was nervous about shaving her hair to a number-three.

“We are the lucky ones as our hair will grow back quicker than someone going through chemotherapy,” she said.

The fundraising event will be held in the hall at Casey Gardens Residential Village on Satur-day, 13 March from 2.30pm, with guests also being treated to a gold-coin donation sausage sizzle.

Ms Allen is hoping to raise $3000 from the fundraiser.

“It’s a fantastic cause which everyone should support,” she said. “The owner of the park is matching what the staff raise, dollar for dollar.”

The Leukaemia Foundation World’s Greatest Shave is one of Australia’s biggest fundraising events.

More than 125,000 people are expected to shave or colour their hair.

The money collected from the event is used to fund free services to support patients and families living with leukaemia, lymphomas, myeloma and related blood disorders.