PHEW… That was a close shave!Some people raise money for charity with a sponsored silence, some even sit in a bathtub full of beans - but an Ipswich woman has gone several steps further for a good cause.

PHEW… That was a close shave!

Some people raise money for charity with a sponsored silence, some even sit in a bathtub full of beans - but an Ipswich woman has gone several steps further for a good cause.

Carole Colman, 55, arrived at Lewis Hair Team, in Dog's Head Street, with a full head of hair and left with nothing but stubble.

The Axa employee, who lives in Cauldwell Hall Road, went to the extreme of having her hair chopped off for St Elizabeth Hospice.

But, being the owner of a 1000cc motorbike, Mrs Colman's no stranger to spontaneous antics.

She said: “I must be mad. People tried to talk me out of it but it just made me more determined - I have a stubborn side.

“There was a comment left on my fundraising website from someone saying: 'You must be committed - either that or you need to be!'”

Hairdresser Sophie Sutton did the cutting. She said: “We don't have many requests like this but I think it's refreshing to see.”

Mrs Colman had good reason to get her head shaved in the name of Suffolk based charity St Elizabeth Hospice, which provides palliative and hospice care for those with life-limited illnesses.

Her dramatic gesture comes at the same time as two of her close friends undergo treatment for cancer.

She has also seen members of her own family deal with the illness.

Upon seeing her new look Mrs Colman said: “I'm glad my ears don't stick out too much. I just have this vision of it growing back totally grey!”

To sponsor Mrs Colman and find out how much she has raised so far, visit www.justgiving.com/carolecolman.

Carole Colman joins a list of people prepared to take a risk for charity:

Manchester's Ron Gordon was awarded an MBE in 1999 for his fundraising efforts.

His wacky charity stunts have included eating a selection of creepy crawlies, including maggots, locusts and ragworms along with a fish eyeball - he has even been stretched between a tree and a reversing fire engine!

In 2006, 34-year-old Stephen Preston (nicknamed Stupid Steve) was towed across the English Channel on an inflatable banana towed behind a rib boat - and driven by a partially blind man.

The round trip took about three hours and Steve reached speeds of up to 30mph on his Island-Hopper banana.

In the same year a 6ft 9in tall charity fundraiser became the first man to walk across the River Mersey - with his head sticking out above the water.

Graham Boanas, 43, from Hull, took just over an hour to walk along mud and sandbanks and through a channel of water about 5ft deep at low tide.