Today marks the day a daughter fulfils a promise she made to her dying mother a year ago — and she and her son have raised nearly $3,500 for cancer charities in the process.

Jillian Potts had cancer diagnosed in February last year and her daughter, Joanne Raposo, promised to shave her head to support her with the side effects of chemotherapy.

But the cancer was so aggressive that Ms Potts passed away on March 22 — only ten days after her first treatment.

“It was a big shock — she was only 56,” Ms Raposo said. “Her cancer was very aggressive and it spread and it didn’t look good.

“They told us that she’d be able to get some chemotherapy treatments, which was good news for us because we thought she would get some relief from the pain she was in, and of course they told her that her hair would fall out.

“When you’re dealing with that sort of thing, that sort of diagnosis, you’re not worried about your hair; we didn’t care.

“But me trying to be supportive at a time when you feel kind of helpless because there is nothing else you can do, I told her I would shave my head too and we would be bald together,” Ms Raposo said, adding that they never got the chance to do it because the disease progressed so rapidly.

Today the 32-year-old Warwick resident and mother-of-two and her seven-year-old son Mark will make good on that promise by having their heads shaved tonight at the St Baldrick’s event at Docksider.

“I’ve always admired people who participate in the St Baldrick’s events, but I’ve never actually been to one, or even really considered participating until last year,” Ms Raposo said.

Ms Raposo decided to take part in October last year and has been growing her hair out ever since.

She plans to donate 20 inches of her hair to Locks of Love, a non-profit organisation that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss.

“My mom was young, devastatingly young for me to have someone die, but children go through it every day — I just wanted to do my bit to help them.”

Ms Raposo, a detective in the Bermuda Police Service, added that everyone has been incredibly supportive.

“My son is here supporting me and my husband was going to do it, but he is on the way to losing his hair and I thought ‘I don’t know if I can let you shave it because it might not grow back.”

The mother and son duo set out to raise $500, but this kept increasing as the donations flooded in and they have raised a combined total of $3,390 so far.

Play With A Purpose Nursery School in Warwick, the preschool Ms Potts worked at, donated $900, which they raised by hosting coffee mornings and hot lunches.

“I’ve sent out e-mails and I am sure half the Police Service will be down there on Friday supporting me,” Ms Raposo added.

“We’ve had sizeable donations from people I don’t even know — it has been a fantastic experience and I’m really grateful to everyone who has been so supportive.”

Ms Raposo said she thinks being bald is going to be a great experience, if a little different. Laughing, she added that her supervisor told her that if she wants to come to work in plain clothes on Monday she should wear a hat.

She said: “I’m thinking, no, I’m not going to hide it — the whole point of it is to be supportive of people who are going through this and who have to shave their heads, so I’m going to wear it proudly.”

Mark added that he is quite excited about the experience and just a “tiny little bit” nervous.

He agreed that being bald might be a little strange to start off with.

And the youngster told his mom: “You’re going to look really funny.”

Ms Raposo, who also lost her grandmother, grandfather and cousin to cancer, said: “It’s a scary thing when you think about the family history and how it might affect me and my children, and their children.

“For me, this is about keeping a promise to my mom, but if I can also raise money to fund research that will one day find a cure, or even support and inspire any person or family going through what we did last year, then that is truly winning.”