By Jacqui McLaren

Entering your teenage years can be both an exciting and daunting adventure.

A time of self-discovery where music is gospel, latest trends are paramount and love interests begin to blossom.

Yet, for thirteen-year-old Lara Nolan, there is only one thing on her mind: shaving her head to raise money for cancer research and donating her hair to be made into a wig.

The wariness you might expect from a young teenager given the circumstances is absent, the grin on Lara’s face shows the opposite.

“I am so excited,” she said.

“I have been waiting for this for a very long time.”

The Year 8, All Hallows student has been wanting to donate her hair for three years, but her mother Kath thought it was originally “just a phase”.

“She’s been growing her hair all year, specifically to donate it into a wig,” Kath said.

“And all year, we just wanted to absolutely make sure that this is what she wanted.

“But it is. She’s absolutely locked in.”

Lara has been eagerly awaiting until the last day of school on November 27. That’s the day when her long, thick chestnut hair will be shaved off.

“She’s been waiting and counting down the days until the last day of school,” Kath said.

“She did PowerPoint presentations, she did songs, she found YouTube clips, she found the websites. She also researched where she would go and what was involved and even did her own marketing campaign.

“She was twelve at the time.

“So, she really is 100 percent sure.”

Her mum could not be prouder.

“What I like about Lara is that she is just such an out-of-the-box thinker and doesn’t actually care about what other people think.

“She’s an individual.”

Since the end of October when Kath posted Lara’s fundraising campaign on social media, almost $3,000 has been raised.

“She wanted $1,000 to begin with and she got that within 24 hours,” Kath explained. There is a reason behind Lara’s drive.

She lost her grandfather Patrick Nolan, nicknamed ‘Pat’, a prominent Brisbane criminal lawyer in the 1970s and ‘80s, to a lengthy battle with an aggressive form of bowel cancer last year.

“All the Nolans are very close so to lose grandad was a big thing,” Kath said.

Although this is something Lara has always wanted to do, it was the loss of her grandad which gave her the impetus to do it.

“He was such a lovely man.

“He would have had 500 or 600 people at his funeral.”

And when Lara’s father suggested that it should be Ross Coco, Pat’s own barber of 45 years, to both shave her hair and make the wig preparations, Kath said Lara broke down in tears.

“He had been going to get his hair cut by Ross for 45 years and towards the end, he had a stroke and he could hardly see,” Kath said.

“But he would still come up.

“Then Ross would come to visit Pat when he was really unwell.

“He used to love seeing Ross”.

Ross, who also lost a young family member to a degenerative neurological disease, at a similar time, jumped at the opportunity.

“It’s like hitching a ride on her journey,” he smiled.

Now a Boonah resident, Ross Coco has owned his Brisbane hairdressing business in Queen Street Mall for 50 years. However, he said it’s stories like this which touch his heart.

“You’ve got to think, some of these people who need these wigs are sometimes on the last six months of their life.

“This can change their life.”

After losing his family member, Ross built an entire spaceship out of an old water tank in his backyard in Boonah which he used to raise $10,000 for the children’s hospital.

“We would sell tickets to go to Mars. Flights left daily too.

“A client who sadly lost his son a few years before wrote a book and donated it. The story just came to him.”

And his attachment to the Boonah community is strong.

Recently, aware that the Scenic Rim Regional Council were considering cutting down four trees in the town centre, Ross decided to raise funds to go towards the purchase of four mature replacement trees to retain the “beauty of High Street, Boonah”.

“I said, look … if you’re going to cut these trees down, I’ll raise the money to buy four more suitable trees.

“And If you change your mind and you don’t cut the trees down, I’ll donate the money to a charity in Boonah.

Raising a total of $1,000 himself from his Brisbane clients and a generous donation of $500 from Tony Richardson, owner of Boonah’s Mitre 10, the two of them also have decided to donate the funds to the Ipswich Hospital Foundation in addition to the amount raised by Lara.

Although Kath and her husband Jeremy both grew up in Brisbane, the Nolans have spent most of their working lives in rural and remote areas in Queensland. They settled in Goondiwindi for ten years to raise their children before moving back to Brisbane last year, however Jeremy continues to work as a locum GP in remote Queensland towns.

So, according to Kath, the family understand what it means to be part of a local community and said she is thrilled to start up another donation page for Lara’s adventure. Funds which will help those in need within the West Moreton region and a wig, donated by her daughter for a local community.

“Coming from a country town, I personally knew a lot of people who didn’t have the money to buy wigs,” Kath said.

“I think this is an incredible service and I’m so glad we heard about the wig bank at the Ipswich Hospital Foundation.”

Brendan Modini from the Foundation said Lara has taken on an incredible journey for a 13-year-old.

“It does change peoples’ lives when they do borrow a wig from us,” he said.

“You see them come in with a head scarf and they aren’t happy but when they leave with a wig, it instantly lifts their whole spirit.

“But it’s even better, when they can come in and return it.

“That’s the payoff.”

“Your hair is going to change people’s lives,” he said to Lara.

Kath added: “This is what Lara wants to do. This is her journey she is on.”

As for Ross, he looks forward to playing a small role in Lara’s adventure.

“Just imagine what she will do in the future,” said Ross.

Yet for Lara, she simply cannot wait.

“I’m just really, really excited.”

You can find the link to Lara’s fundraising page on the Ipswich Hospital Foundation website – ihfoundation.org.au/give/laranolan.