Journey of love
by Bonnie Hunt
Some people called my journey commendable, honourable, noble. I thought of it more as supportive, sacrificial, and long!
It began in October of 2005 when I participated in the Run for the Cure fundraiser for breast cancer with my dear friend Liz Harding, diocesan director for Christian education. I worked with her at the time. I wore a white supporter shirt, she wore a pink survivor one. At times during the event we were both moved to tears and I was reminded of two other women in my life who had faced the painful battle with breast cancer – my aunt, who lost, and a mentor from my early teens who wears a pink survivor shirt today.
Liz shared her fight with breast cancer beast with me a few months before the run. I thought it was cool that as her hair grew in after her chemotherapy she decided to grow it long enough to donate it to make a wig. She wanted to do it so another woman could have a real hair wig, like one she wore during treatment. She said the wig gave her confidence to face the days during her recovery.
It was during the 2005 Run for the Cure (we walked), among the thousands of supporters and survivors, that I decided I wanted to join Liz in giving confidence and hope to another woman.
As we prepared to sign-up with Wig-Makers we discovered they don’t make adult wigs with “processed” hair. We were all about growing our hair for three years and making the sacrifice, but were we up to the challenge of all that time without hair colour?
We looked for wig makers who weren’t quite so fussy and found Locks for Love, a non-profit group that makes hairpieces for children. They were happy to take processed hair as long as it was not bleached. We were thrilled and climbed on board!
In the fall of 2007, after two long years of growing our hair, it was longer than we could handle comfortably and we were both going crazy. Even though it was long enough to cut and donate the required 10 inches, we couldn’t do it. We had another friend growing her hair and she was away until the spring. We had another friend had joined us later in the game and her hair wasn’t long enough. So we persevered through yet another winter.
Finally, on May 13, 2008, Liz, our friend Valerie Archibald and I did it. We got our hair cut. We gathered at the salon where Liz has had her hair done for ages (beginning long before her cancer diagnosis) in a small town in Massachusetts called Rockport. Our other friend wants to grow her hair even longer so she didn’t join us.
After we had done the deed we learned, much to our surprise, that two more of our friends also cut their hair that week. So in the end we had five ponytails to donate to Locks for Love, which is very good because it takes eight to make one hairpiece for a child.
It was a very moving time for Liz and me. We thought about the last three years — how our friendship has grown, and the support that we give each other.
In the spring Liz also celebrated five years cancer-free. Her oncologist told her it would be a miracle if she made it five years without a recurrence – so we thank God for miracles.
