Serendipitously Tom is a writer and director, and I am a film producer, and in the last three years of our relationship we’ve begun to collaborate on creative projects.

Tom and I recently embarked on a project of epic proportions – as part of his Masters degree at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School he wrote and directed a feature film, The Greenhouse.

This is something that had hitherto not been done at the school and for good reason.

We had to work with a micro-budget that meant that most of our cast and crew were paid in kindness and care alone.

We knew that in order to make this happen we would have to ask for support from the local community – not just so that we had a place to shoot the film, but to put food in our bellies, coffee in our cups and a roof over our heads.

Tom and I were blown away by the continued assistance we received from individuals and businesses in the area.

Without them we simply would not have a film to show the world in a couple of months time.

To that end, we would like to give our sincere thanks to the following: Adrian, Jenny and Tom Robertson at Worrowing at Jervis Bay; Amanda Smyth, Aroma Cleaning; Bakers Delight Huskisson; Club Jervis Bay; Damien and Josie at Il Locale Café, Berry; Five Little Pigs; Greg at Oz Realty; Holiday Haven Tourist Park; Huskisson Bakery; Jervis Bay Retreat; Kanpai; Karen Cunningham; Kyla Stone at Wabi Botanicals; Main Deck Café; Michelle Miran; Peter and Narelle Gaffey; The Kiosk; The Nowra Players; Waterhouse; and Wild Ginger.

Especially massive shout out to Di Laver from the Huskisson Food Network who helped wrangle enough food to feed an army – for free – along with our wonderful caterer Cam from On Deck Catering.

Greg from Oz Realty and the Robertsons at Worrowing also deserve special mention for letting us use their abodes for essentially nothing.

On behalf of the Leukaemia Foundation, I would like to say a big thank you to readers for their incredible support of World’s Greatest Shave this year.

The extraordinary people who shaved or coloured and their generous sponsors have now raised an incredible $4,920,000 in NSW alone. 

This will help to fund projects that will make a genuine difference to local families facing blood cancer.

The money will now be used to provide safe and comfortable accommodation in the city for families living in regional NSW so they can more easily access life-saving treatment.

It also means we can offer free transport, counselling, information and practical support to the 60,000 Australians living with a blood cancer.

Meanwhile, researchers funded by our supporters are working tirelessly to discover safer and more effective treatments.

Although their critical research is improving survival rates, sadly an Australian still loses their life to blood cancer every two hours.

But thanks to those taking part in World’s Greatest Shave, we are well on our way to reaching our goal of $5.6 million in NSW.

There is still time for people to sign up or make a donation at www.worldsgreatestshave.com.au.

Thanks to you, the Leukaemia Foundation will be able to help more Australians with leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma and related disorders survive and live a better quality of life.

Yours sincerely,