Written by Nicole Elsasser
When Bethany Lerman was fifteen-years old she had a second relapse of child leukemia. The human hair wig that she received was the one thing that gave her a sense of normalcy during a time when nothing seemed to be as it should be. Now a two-time cancer survivor and student at the University of Guelph, on Jan. 25 Lerman worked with her peers to organize a fundraiser for the campus club, Cuts for Cancer at Guelph, with the hopes of raising $10 000 for the Childhood Cancer Foundation (CCF) and collecting as much human hair as possible to be made into wigs for children with cancer.
According to Lerman, during the time when she battled childhood cancer, she as well as many of children that she knew in a similar situation, came to see a human hair wig as an important comfort and chance for normalcy while undergoing treatment for cancer.
“There was one girl in the ward [with me], Lindsay, who would never take her [wig] off, she was thirteen and she refused to take it off,” said Lerman. “You’re sick, you’re in the hospital, you don’t look like yourself, you’re getting drugs injected in you, you don’t feel like yourself but you can put on the wig and feel like ‘This is me. I’m still me. I’m still normal.’ It gives kids a chance to go out in public and not be the bald kid, or the kid with a bad wig, but just a kid.”
Lerman ended up joining forces with Patricia Power and Lisa Kellenberger, both University of Guelph students and founders of Cuts for Cancer at Guelph. According to Lerman, once the club decided to work with the CCF, organizing the fundraising side of the event became easier thanks to their website, Small Hands, which makes sponsorship and fundraising more convenient.
On the day of the event, the organizers surpassed their goal and raised nearly $14, 000 worth of donations, not including change raised from a raffle. Lerman stressed that donations continue to be accepted through the club’s website until Feb. 15 which is International Children’s Cancer Day.
During Monday’s event, participants lined up to have their hair cut off and made into wigs. Lerman was thrilled to see that a majority of the participants donated the full 10 inches of hair required to make a wig for a child with cancer; others were able to donate between six and 10 inches that could be sold commercially with the proceeds going to the CCF.
Julia Ranieri, the top fundraiser with a total of $4,581 and a future pediatric oncologist, shaved her head for Monday’s event. Ranieri explained it was a recent cancer diagnosis of someone close to her that prompted her to shave her head, without a second thought.
“The person that I know that has cancer is like a sister to me,” said Ranieri. “When she was re-diagnosed back in September, I said ‘If she’s going to be bald, I’m going to be bald,’ right from the get go.”