"I just kind of stumbled in," North was recalling recently.

The shop was called Barbers' Hairstyling and the proprietor was a man named Bill Kaminski.

Three decades later, North is still winning golf tournaments -- he teamed with his buddy Tom Watson for a victory last spring -- and Kaminski is still cutting his hair.

Yet over 30 years, some things change. North now spends most of his professional time as a golf commentator for ESPN and ABC. He also has a course-design business.

Kaminski got in at the inception of the Cost Cutters franchise, and grew into one of its most successful operators, with around 100 salons at his peak.

Kaminski rarely cuts hair anymore, but he makes an exception for North.

On Monday, the two old friends will get together for a special haircut. Kaminski will shave North's head, in preparation for a medical procedure related to the skin cancer that North has been battling since 1991.

In chatting over the past couple of months, North and Kaminski came up with the idea to turn the head shaving into a "Clip Cancer" fundraiser -- and a skin cancer awareness raiser -- for the UW Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Kaminski has agreed to match donations from the public up to $10,000. Donations can be made at the Carbone center's Web site: www.cancer.wisc.edu.

The procedure North will undergo is called Photodynamic Therapy. It involves the application of a topical drug that, when put under a blue light, reveals pre-cancerous cells and eliminates them.

North explained it as a kind of pre-emptive strike and said he had the procedure last year on his face.

"It was fantastic," he said. This year he will have it on his arms and the top of his head -- hence, the head shaving.

North said he hopes his high profile might help others worrying about the loss of hair from chemotherapy or other cancer treatments.

Certainly fear of the unknown is a factor whenever cancer enters a discussion.

North has learned a great deal about the disease and has become a strong advocate for preventive care since the morning nearly two decades ago when his wife, Susan, looked at him over the breakfast table and said his nose looked a little different.

Andy, who had cancer in his family, went in to have it checked. It turned out he had basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer.

Within 36 hours, North had four surgeries to remove the cancer. They were performed by Dr. Stephen Snow at the Mohs Surgery Clinic at UW Hospital. North followed those operations with plastic reconstructive surgery.

Six years later, in May 1997, North wrote an article for Golf Journal -- the publication of the United States Golf Association -- describing his ordeal with skin cancer and urging everyone to wear hats and sunscreen when they're outside. It was a brave article -- honest and deeply personal -- and it got the golf world's attention.

In the years since that first cancer was discovered, North has had dozens of procedures related to staying on top of his condition. Recently he estimated the number may be close to 100. He's approaching the head shaving with good humor, knowing it's a smart step.

It was Kaminski who suggested the fundraiser. He'd watched his friend deal with the condition over the years and admired how he'd handled it.

Kaminski knows something about overcoming obstacles. He had a tough upbringing in Minnesota, and was expelled from high school a week before graduation for punching a guard. Before long he'd been busted for burglary and sent to prison in St. Cloud.

It was there that Kaminski resolved to turn his life around.

"You get a lot of time to think about where you are and where you're going," he said recently. "I decided I didn't want to live like that anymore."

While incarcerated, Kaminski finished his high school education and learned to cut hair. Later, in Minneapolis, he met Joe Francis, who taught Bill the business and brought him along when Francis started Cost Cutters. Kaminski became one of the company's largest franchisees.

North calls his friend "a true American success story."

The two got together a few days ago to work out some of the logistics of Monday's head shaving. North was just back from the Virgin Islands. He chuckled while admitting his work there as a radio commentator for the Badger basketball games may have been a bit pro-Wisconsin. At one point North suggested a referee's call against the Badgers may have been the worst in college basketball history.

That might have been a bit overstated, but you can believe Andy North when he says a donation to the Clip Cancer campaign for the Carbone center, matched by Bill Kaminski, is a slam dunk winner.

You can hear Doug Moe talk about his columns Tuesday mornings at 7:35 on 105.5-Triple M. Contact him at 608-252-6446 or dmoe@madison.com.