MEREWETHER High has taken the crown of raising more than any other school in the country in this year's World's Greatest Shave campaign, collecting $119,407 for the Leukaemia Foundation.
As previously reported, the school's prefects have every year for the past decade led their peers' participation in the event, which saw more than 100 students shave, cut or dye their hair on March 24 this year.
Year 12 student and prefect Cooper Ivory, 17, said the students originally aimed to raise $80,000 - slightly more than last year's cohort - which they achieved a week before the shave.
They held school events every Friday, an Easter raffle and the online Raffle for a Remedy, which was open to the wider community and raised nearly $10,000 on its own.
"We always had on the backburner as an unofficial goal 'How good would it be if we could get six-figures, $100,000?', but that was always a little bit of a stretch," he said.
"To be able to hit six figures on shave day was incredible, we were all speechless and when we announced it - it was just amazing to see the school go wild because it was happening in real time, we were refreshing the page 1000 times to see the ticker cross over."
The prefects presented the Leukaemia Foundation with a cheque for the funds on Thursday.
"We feel really great, it just feels amazing to have raised such an amazing amount of money to really make a positive change in a lot of people's lives," Cooper said.
"We feel really proud of what we've been able to achieve, not just the prefects, but also the entire school community... it also contributes to the school spirit.
"We've developed a really amazing school spirit at Merewether High School centered around donating and supporting people that are going through these sorts of treatments and experiences."
Foundation chief executive Chris Tanti said the charity was "extremely grateful" for the school's support.
"[Money raised ensures] that every single Australian that hears the words 'You have blood cancer,' regardless of where they live, can access the support of the Leukaemia Foundation free of charge," he said.
"It also assists the Leukaemia Foundation in our advocacy work for equitable access to new therapies and treatments and helps us to further invest in vital blood cancer research."
September is Blood Cancer Month. The foundation's new dedicated blood cancer support line can be reached on 1800 620 420 or bloodcancer.org.au
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