NEARLY 700 people have signed up to lose their hair, aiming to raise more than $540,000 for children with cancer.

Among this year's 'shavees' are 157 women, the highest number of females in the event's history.

All will have their heads shaved on July 5, at the seventh annual Hair for Hope event, to be held at Velocity @ Novena Square. Funds raised will go to the Children's Cancer Foundation (CCF).

The total number is a far cry from the nine who signed up in the event's first year, but lower than the 896 who went bald in 2006 and last year's 1,112.

While it is short of this year's target of 800, CCF's community partnerships officer Christopher Daguimol is expecting walk-ins to make up the numbers.

'Usually we get 200 to 300 walk-ins on the day itself,' he said. Corporate and school shavees, which hold separate events, will also make up numbers.

On June 18 and 19, shavees attended a briefing on what to expect at the KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH).

Many had signed up because they had known someone who suffered through cancer.

One shavee is Straits Times editor Han Fook Kwang, who signed up after hearing about a friend who had done so.

'The Children's Cancer Foundation is doing good work in helping cancer-stricken children. It must be terrifying to suffer from cancer, especially for a child,' he said. He has since received $3,900 in pledges from well-wishers, and expects 'more to come'.

Having set up The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund with colleagues, he said, he is aware of the difficulties of fund-raising.

Not all charities, like the fund, enjoy a platform in The Straits Times to reach the masses for support. 'We must do as much as we can to create awareness for them,' he said.

His family and friends have been supportive, with some even calling him brave. But, he said, the women shavees were the brave ones for giving up their crowning glory. He quipped: 'After all, I've got nothing much to lose anyway.'

One woman shavee, CCF volunteer Gennet Song, 50, will be losing her locks for the first time. 'I am half a century old and I wanted to do something meaningful,' she said.

Another, Ms Jacq Ong, 34, is going bald for the fourth time. When she first did it at the age of 30, her mother refused to walk beside her, saying that 'I looked like an ex-con'. Now, however, 'she has accepted that I shave for a good cause and is even canvassing on my behalf'.

Ahead of the shave date, CCF has received more than $90,000 in donations from DBS Bank, money raised at a private shaving session on Thursday, held in memory of the company's late chief executive Richard Stanley, a cancer victim.

Another group holding its own session for Hair for Hope is Fuji-Xerox, a supporter of the CCF for the last 13 years. It aims to raise more than $30,000.

Money raised will go to funding treatment, helping families of sufferers with their medical costs, as well as the Family Service Centres at both KKH and the National University of Singapore.

Donors can send cheques to the CCF, or donate at the event venue.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.