The courageous 23-year-old lopped her locks at a beyondblue fundraiser on Thursday in memory of the late Maddie Smith.

Every year since Maddie’s tragic death in 2016, the Smith family has been holding a fundraiser for beyondblue on her birthday in the Woolworths Gunnedah car park. This year, Maddie would have been 24 years old.

By this morning, already almost $2000 had been raised from the sales of raffle tickets and baked goods, and donations towards Chanelle’s shave. The Apex Club of Gunnedah also showed its support by bringing down a fairy floss machine.

Chanelle said she was the year below Maddie at school and they were “good friends”.

“I wanted to raise as much money as I possibly could for beyondblue in memory of Maddie,” Chanelle said.

Maddie’s mother Vicki said Chanelle approached her last week about shaving her head for funds.

“She said, ‘I want to shave my head for Maddie’ and I said, ‘Darling, you don’t need to do that’ and she said, ‘I want to’,” Vicki said.

In view of the weather and Chanelle’s shaved head, Vicki gave her one of Maddie’s beanies and also bought her a new one, which is brightly coloured and reminded them both of Maddie.

Vicki said the fundraiser was the idea of her fellow Woolworths employee Patrina Marshall and it has now been running for three years. The previous two years, more than $4000 has been raised.

“It blows me away. It gets bigger and bigger every year,” Vicki said.

Numerous businesses donated prizes to be raffled and baked goods to be sold.

“The community is incredible – the generosity,” Vicki said. 

“This town is amazing. We even had people from outside of town, when we were selling raffle tickets, give us donations because they believe in the cause.”

To donate to beyondblue, visit https://beyondblueinmemoriam.everydayhero.com/au/never-again-in-honour-in-maddie-smith