Last year Eric Andrews turned more than a few heads when he volunteered to wax his hairy legs for Relay for Life.

But this year he and his team – Forever in Our Hearts – wanted to do something even more out of the box.

So, on Friday, Luke and Jessica Banister, Jess Reeve, Lewis Davies and Mr Andrews set out from the Belmore Hotel on a 13 kilometre trek to Hinton Pub.

When the team rolled into the pub they auctioned donated items collected on the journey – including the wheelbarrow itself.

All up they raised more than $1100 with the pub itself winning the wheelbarrow.

But, in a gesture of support, the publicans re-donated the wheelbarrow which was raffled off again on Sunday afternoon. After the second round the team had collected a total of $1522.55.

Mr Andrews said he was over the moon with the amount his stunt had collected for cancer research.

Mr Andrews, who fundraises each year for Maitland Relay for Life after losing his mother, sister and aunt to cancer, is hoping the spectacle will inspire residents and businesses to donate funds or goods to the cause.

“We’ve all lost family members to cancer,” he said.

But Friday’s wheelbarrow odyssey and waxing was only a preview of the team’s grand finale.

“It will be a sort of warm-up,” Mr Andrews said.

“At the end of September we’ll be getting full leg waxes.”

The men will try to out-fundraise each other between now and July.

Whoever raises the highest and second highest amounts earns a professionally administered leg wax.

“But whoever raises the lowest [amount of money] gets their legs waxed by first and second place,” Mr Andrews said. Despite the excitement, Mr Andrews said the event was for a serious and important cause.

“The waxing is painful but it’s nothing compared to what cancer sufferers go through,” he said.

Donations to Mr Andrews’ team can be made online at bit.ly/1TYwedS and Maitland Relay for Life will be held on September 10.