A Broken Hill couple battling separate cancer cases have expressed their gratitude for a successful fundraiser held in their honour over the weekend.
Rob Meuret was first diagnosed with prostate cancer 13 years ago while wife Cheryl was only informed in June she had myeloma, a form of blood cancer.
The idea for Friday night's fundraiser started when 12-year-old neighbour Lincoln Casey approached Mr and Mrs Mueret and offered to cut off his mullet to help raise money for them.
Alongside was his brother, Tom, who volunteered to cut his mullet off as well.
The gestures evolved into a community raffle and fundraiser at the South Golf Club, with three hairdressers volunteering to cut hair, eyebrows and mustaches on the night.
Over the course of Friday night, and the rest of the weekend, more than $23,000 was raised through raffling, haircuts and donations.
Mr Meuret said it was unbelievable to watch the community rally together and help.
"[It would] blow your mind away to see the amount of people there to give us a bit of support," he said.
"And you know we need a bit of support now and again."
A helping hand
Father of the two boys, Travis Casey, said he was proud to hear how his sons decided to help out their neighbours.
"For them to think of something like that was pretty heart-warming," he said.
"The idea to start with was just to have a bit of a barby in the avenue here. She's a pretty tight knit community down this end of the world."
"[Rob and Cheryl] were neighbours when I was born 40-odd years ago so they've been a big part of my life and a big part of the boy's life."
A broader cause
Despite both suffering from serious bouts of cancer, the Meurets have decided to donate every cent to the Broken Hill oncology unit and to Greenhill Lodge in Adelaide.
Greenhill Lodge is a specialist facility that looks after regional cancer patients when they need to go to the city for treatment.
Mr Meuret said it was better the money went towards helping the wider community.
"We don't want the money. We want it to go to somewhere that everyone's going to benefit [from]," he said.
Mrs Meuret said she was amazed at how much help she and her husband had received since their diagnoses.
"Until you've had something to do with cancer you don't really know how much support is out there for you," she said.
"We've just been overwhelmed with what's been offered to us, the help right from Broken Hill all the way to Adelaide.
"It's just so much support [for] cancer patients."
