A FAMILY of seven stepped up to brave the shave for charity after dealing with a cancer scare.

Emily Ruffles, of Clacton, was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.

She has faced a whirlwind few months of surgeries, treatments and hospital appointments, but is finally on the road to recovery.

Emily, 56, says she is still coming to terms with it – but was inspired to do something for charity and vowed to shave off her hair.

She was stunned when her husband and five children all pledged to join her for the chop.

All seven had their hair shaved short last week, raising hundreds of pounds for Macmillan Cancer Support nurses.

Emily said: “It was a real shock to be told I had cancer.

“I just went for a check-up and from there it was just a whirlwind. I never really had a chance to get my brain around it.

“I cried a lot, and it was really hard telling the family. Then it’s just surgery after surgery.”

Doctors believe they have removed all of the cancerous cells, but Emily is still set for treatments to make sure.

“At the moment I’m tired a lot of the time, but I’m relieved the worst is over,” she said.

“At a certain point I thought to myself crying isn’t going to get you anywhere, and I wanted to do something good.

“My situation inspired me to do this, and the family all said straight away that they wanted to do it with me.

“They wanted to be part of it and for us to do it together and support each other.

“My husband and children have special needs and we have a carer who did the cutting for us.

“His hand must have hurt after going through all seven of us!”

They have raised hundreds of pounds already, with sponsorship still coming in.

The majority will be donated to Macmillan, while some of the cash and the longer hair will be sent to the Little Princess Trust.

Emily added: “It has been tough for me but I know other people have it much worse with cancer.

“Macmillan have been marvellous with me and they do so much good work.

“I’m proud that we have been able to do something to help them as a family and some good has come from my diagnosis.”