Ballarat's bitterly cold wind came as a shock to Eli Spielvogel when he stepped out of the gymnasium at Damascus College with his newly shaved head.
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For the past three years he's been growing his long hair in preparation for the big shave, which he underwent in front of hundreds of school mates on Tuesday.
Alongside raising more than $1000 for the Leukemia Foundation, Eli donated his long locks to be made in to wigs for children who lose their own hair during cancer treatment.
Before the scissors were wielded, Eli had already raised more than $900 and onlookers chipped in a further $166.85 as the fundraising tin was passed around the crowd.
The cold wind on his shaved head took the 13-year-old's breath away as he returned to afternoon classes with a new look.
Eli decided to shave his hair because he knows what it feels like to be a sick kid, and he wants to give inspiration to others doing it tough.
After he was born, Eli was diagnosed with multiple heart defects and as he was being rushed to hospital at just a week old his parents Naomi and Adam were warned he might not survive the trip.
His first heart procedure took place when he was nine days old, and at six months he had open heart surgery which didn't go quite as planned when his heart failed to restart. That led to surgeons implanting a pacemaker that kept Eli alive for about eight years before his heart began beating on its own.
"I went through a really tough time I don't want other people to go through that sort of thing," he said.
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