Shaving her head, completely bald, is but a small sacrifice in the eyes of Sudbury native Karen Falldien Yawney.

"My hair grows stupid fast," she said with a smile, sitting and chatting on the outdoor patio of the Timberwolf Golf Club. "Within a year, my hair will be long again - probably less than a year."

A small price to pay as Falldien Yawney has teamed up with Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer (NOFCC), collecting donations in support of the local charity as she prepares to be shaved, "right down to the wood", as she terms it, come September 26th.

This is the second time that the wife of Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame golf pro Sam Yawney has undertaken such a challenge. Some five years ago, her efforts netted the Northern Cancer Foundation nearly $20,000.

"The little girl of a good friend's cousin was dealing with leukemia, and it touched me, that she was so young and small and was losing her hair, at the age of two, and really didn't understand it," said Falldien Yawney.

"Back then, you could donate hair, but they have now stopped taking real hair for wigs. It's too time consuming and expensive to make the wigs, so now they use just synthethic hair. Donating the hair was a bonus, bit it was really about raising awareness."

Regardless, the long-time Sudbury native knew that "Karen for Kids with Cancer" would resurface again. "I knew that I wanted to do it again, but I wasn't sure when I would do it."

This time around, the motivator would come, in part, from Malleck Kennedy, son of family friends Sarah and Codi Kennedy, whose fight with cancer has been well-documented since he was first diagnosed in 2017.

The end goal, as it was five years ago, it to reach and hopefully surpass the $10,000 target, with donations being accepted both on-line (NOFCC website at www.nofcc.ca), or at any Golf Sudbury location.

Even more appealing, for the golf community, is the fact that each $5 donation made at Timberwolf will be accompanied by a $10 discount for the next round of golf, while folks hitting the links at either Cedar Green (Garson) or Monte Vista (Val Caron) will receive $5 off for their contribution of half that amount.

And while some might want to retreat indoors, allowing time for their golden locks to return, Falldien Yawney looks forward to taking her new look on the road, her career as a northern Ontario sales representative sure to allow for some lively banter.

"It has more of an impact going completely bald," she laughed. "I tend to get quite a few donations, working with LCBO staff from right across the north, once they find out or see me with no hair. And my boss, last time, could not wait to host a sales meeting after I had my hair shaved off."