For Tash Pethick, this Friday’s cancer fundraiser for St Baldrick’s carries a sense of personal mission.

Ms Pethick has already raised nearly $10,000 for the St Baldrick’s charity cause — inspired by a close friend’s battle with stage two breast cancer. Now she hopes to beat her goal and hit the $15,000 mark.

“The first person I really knew who had cancer passed away from it — that was my personal introduction to the disease,” Ms Pethick said. “When my best friend had cancer diagnosed last February, I was very, very worried she would have the same fate. I felt completely helpless. There was nothing I could do; she was going to have to fight it all by herself. It’s an empty feeling.”

She added: “It was also very scary — it makes you look at your own mortality.”

Her close friend, Hsian Kim, is the same age as Ms Pethick — 31 — and led a healthy, active life, with no family history of cancer, but nonetheless found herself fighting for her survival.

Thankfully, she has responded well to chemotherapy and radiation, and is now “in a good place”, Ms Pethick said — well enough to take a break from the snow of London, Ontario to come to Bermuda later this week to watch her friend give up her hair.

The head-shaving, something Ms Pethick has never before tried, was a gesture of solidarity with her friend. It has also caught on for fundraising: last time she checked, the account had taken in $9,599.

“She’s lost her hair — now I’m losing mine too,” Ms Pethick said.

Her five-year-old son Tyler is accustomed to crew cuts, but daughters Ella, 6, and Sydney, 2, are a little alarmed at the prospect.

Head shaving starts at 6pm on Friday at the Docksider Pub and Restaurant, with a fundraising total goal of $150,000.

To help with Ms Pethick’s cause, look her up by name on the St Baldrick’s Foundation website, www.stbaldricks.org. Her participant number is 740258.

Donors can choose to give to the United States branch, or select Bermuda so that a portion of their donations remain on the Island with Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre’s SunSmart Programme.