Zach's mission to raise awareness and restore confidence

Within the next decade, it is likely blood cancer will become Australia's most common and deadly cancer, and 15-year-old Zach Rich has stepped up to do his part. He's spreading awareness and raising funds for blood cancer research. Zach participated in the World's Greatest Shave on 27 September, saying goodbye to four years' worth of hair growth and donating it in hopes to restore someone else's confidence. Incidence rates of blood cancer are rising sharply with an increase of 79 per cent in the past 20 years, according to the Leukaemia Foundation, meaning it is now more important than ever to improve early detection, prevention and treatment options. Zach originally set the goal of raising $600 but that goal was quickly met after he received an overwhelming amount of support. "I expected a bit of support but it's been a lot more than I thought," he said. "There's so many people coming up to me and saying how good it was that I was doing this and asking how to donate. "The aim was to raise $600 but we blasted that out of the water and we've now raised it to $1500." Zach has now smashed his target raising $1713 (as of 13 October) with every dollar going towards funding life-saving research and essential support services to Australians living with blood cancer. Ahead of the big shave Zach said his hair is something that can always grow back and was pretty excited as it is something new for him as well. From the whole experience of participating in the World's Greatest Shave Zach has learnt how generous our community can be and how cancer affects everyone. "[I have learnt] how generous everyone can be and how much of our community is affected by cancer. I knew that it was pretty devastating in how it affected people but I didn't know how much, and now I do," he said. If you would like to help Zach raise even more money for blood cancer research head to www.worldsgreatestshave.com/fundraisers/zachrich/2025

Zach's mission to raise awareness and restore confidence

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