Bald Again!

I had my head shaved today; this time, for somebody else. I was one of over 600 volunteers who raised money for the Children’s Cancer Foundation by having their heads shaved. I’d just started getting my hair back after chemo, but when I heard about this fundraiser, I immediately signed up.

Later, I started to have doubts. When I’d raised only S$3,000, I thought I’d pay that to KEEP my hair. Some people, including my radiation oncologist, said they’d sponsor me NOT to shave my head. And after my radiation treatment ended a few weeks ago, I thought how nice it would be to keep my hair and have a normal life again -- no more daily visits to the hospital, no more chemo-bald head staring back at me from the mirror. But then I raised $10,000 and thought that was worth being bald for. Besides, I don’t need a bald head to remind me I have cancer. I’m reminded of it everyday when I get dressed and undressed.

I did an informal survey of participants at the “Hair for Hope” fundraiser. I wanted to know if people were volunteering because they personally knew someone with cancer. Of the 50 people I asked, 22 people said they knew someone with cancer and 28 said they didn’t personally know anyone with cancer. I was very surprised. Actually, I was touched. I know these people weren’t volunteering to be shaved in order to help me, personally, but I was really touched that non-cancer people cared enough about cancer people to do something like this.