Kath, 44, still faces weeks of treatment, but the couple have decided it was the perfect time to give back to Peter's Project which has made the cancer journey for her and her young family easier.

"Spending each week with Kath and watching what everyone's going through, I just wanted to help," Mr Haworth said.

"Every little thing you can do to help makes a difference.

"With two young kids, having everything there so close has made it a lot easier."

In March, Mrs Haworth found a lump in her breast. "I don't normally do checks, but this was a pretty obvious lump," Mrs Haworth said.

Assuming it was probably just a cyst, Mrs Haworth went to the doctor and was told that because of her age they don't normally do mammograms.

So instead they sent her for a scan where it was decided to do biopsy and mammogram straight away. "It moved pretty quickly from there," she said.

She underwent a lumpectomy - a surgery that also included removing the nodes from under her arm - followed by eight rounds of chemotherapy and has just started radiotherapy.

Mrs Haworth - who works four days a week at King's College - had chemotherapy on her day off every fortnight and, after taking the following day off to recover, was back in the classroom teaching.

"I've been very blessed with how I've responded to treatment. You hear lots of stories of people that are pretty wiped out," she said, although admitted that towards the end she was starting to feel that way.

For 10 or 15 minutes before or after work, Mrs Haworth now has to do radiotherapy every week day for six weeks.

"It targets where they took the lump out and then a couple of places under the collarbone and breastbone where they can't get to the nodes," she said.

"It just targets those because it was in so many of the nodes they took out from under the arm."

She takes her six-year-old son Tyler to the cancer centre, and he plays in the Peter's Project toy room while she has her treatment.

"We're just feeling so blessed about the centre because if it wasn't there I'd be up in Geelong at the moment and only coming home on the weekends," she said.

"There's been so much research into breast cancer, even when I was diagnosed I wasn't worried or concerned or anything because of the medical facilities and knowledge they have around breast cancer.

"Faith in God helps with that certainty and not getting worried.

"We're just so grateful for the amazing staff at the centre."

Mr Haworth hopes to raise $3000 by the time he shaves his beard off at the end of January, but said more would be great. To donate go Shaving for Kath at the My Cause website.

Funds raised will go towards the running and resourcing of the Peter's Project room.

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