"I started growing it when I was in high school," Hugh recalls.

It grew so long that when you pulled his ringlets his hair reached halfway down his back. But these days, those former golden locks are a little short, a fair bit thinner and range in colour from grey to white.

"I'm more like Gandalf of the Grey," he laughed. "So it's time."

So instead of just snipping it off and being done with it, he's decided to use it as an opportunity to raise some money to help others, after all, helping others is in his in blood.

Hugh followed in his mother's footsteps and studied to become a nurse. In 1990, Hugh moved to Gloucester to take up a 12-month position at Gloucester Soldiers Memorial Hospital.

This burly man, with a light brown mullet, was not necessarily the typical image of a nurse, and he definitely made an impression on his colleagues and patients. As did the town on him, as he's never left, only switching gears in his career to become a paramedic about 16 years ago.

His wife, Belinda Dougherty, who now works in pathology, says she gets asked several times a day how "the paramedic with the piggy tail is doing."

"It used to be a horsetail," Hugh smiled.

Hugh isn't the first in his family to go under the razor for cancer, his son Brody took part in the Gloucester High School shave for breast cancer, saying goodbye to his ponytail in 2017.

Hugh is committed to taking a number one blade to his head on Friday, March 13 out front of the Gloucester Ambulance Station, Queen Street at 1pm. He's hoping to raise as much as he can for the World's Greatest Shave for the Leukaemia Foundation and is willing to take donation offers if anyone wants to do the honours of shaving off his locks.

"Everyone is welcome to come out, throw in some coins and watch," Hugh said.

To donate to Hugh's shave visit www.worldsgreatestshave.com, click on the donate button and search for Hugh.