CANCER survivor Joe Pearson has celebrated his fourth year without the disease by completing a charity head shave with his mum to raise money for children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent.

The 20-year-old, of Perch Close, Calne, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in December 2007, and agreed to the head shave at High Street Barbers in Calne after his mum saw an advert for the charity's Big Buzz campaign.

The pair have smashed their original fundraising target of £400 and are now hoping to hit the £1,000 mark having experienced first-hand the work that CLIC Sargent do.

Mr Pearson said: “They are absolutely amazing with all their social workers that come to your house and make sure you know about charities like Starlight.

“The nurses that come out to you to take your blood and stuff, they make the treatments about us as children.”

Joe, who has previously backed a campaign to recruit 1,000 new blood donors in the Bath and Wiltshire area, is now working as a child care assistant at Sunbeams Pre-school in Calne.

He said: “It’s amazing; I have so much fun helping the children to develop and learn new things. I’m a big kid really.”

The children’s charity was praised by Ms Pearson for helping her through Joe’s treatment and she said she was desperate to do something to help the charity.

She said: “They were keeping me sane and they provided a home from home for when Joe was at Bristol. The CLIC Sargent nurses and social workers who helped us apply for grants when Joe was poorly, they were amazing.

“We won’t be able to pay them back but it was a chance for us to give a little bit back for families that are in the same position we were. We will never be able to pay them back for what they gave us.”

“I was a little bit nervous about the head shave but I didn’t care as much as I thought I might. Joe has been so much braver than me; all the children we are raising the money for are so brave.

“We smashed our £400 target and we’re close to £900 so we’re really proud of how much we have managed to raise and hopefully that will keep going up.”

Readers can donate to Joe and Alyson’s cause by visiting www.justgiving.com/Alyson-Pearson1/