Special Hats Should Be Gifts For Cancer Victims
Over the years, I have known many people with cancer. A girl who I baby-sat had Wilhms cancer, and my second cousin had lymphatic cancer. This afternoon while I was reading the newspaper, the article “Hair Apparent” (Feb. 8) touched me, and troubled me at the same time.
The article explained how a woman named Susie Toronto made a hat with human hair bangs for her friend Candy Swanson who was balding from chemotherapy. Donna Huff, the director of the patient support program at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center, saw a hat made by Susie and is now helping Swanson and Toronto sell them in a variety of styles and colors.
This article first brought to mind my sixth grade year at Wilson Elementary when my teacher, Ms. O’Neil, took our class to the second grade room and paired us up with a “little buddy.”
My buddy, Biz, and I met weekly over the course of the year to work on reading, writing, and mathematics. I immediately fell in love with Biz. We had so much fun together that I started baby-sitting her every day after school.
In November, Biz was persistently weak and sick, so her mother decided it was time for her to see a doctor. One week later Biz was diagnosed with cancer. Biz had had the same cancer once before when she was only 15 months old. Now she was 8 and already facing death.
Luckily, the doctor discovered the disease early and performed a surgery to remove a kidney, increasing her chance for survival. She started radiation therapy and chemotherapy immediately and by the end of the second grade, Biz’s hair had completely fallen out.
She attended school, but was quite weak and susceptible to infections because of her illness. I visited her as often as I could and we read books, watched movies and tried to remember all the fun times we had together. Biz wore hats to cover up her bald head, but whenever she went to school, she was made fun of and called cruel names.
The teachers tried to talk with the other students and stop their ridicule, but at such an early age, kids do not understand cancer or the treatment for the disease. I now wonder why I never thought to make a hat for Biz like those made by Susie Toronto.
As the second grade continued, Biz attended fewer classes. By summer she was on the verge of dying when a new chemo-radiation treatment was revealed. The doctors were hesitant to put Biz on this treatment because it was not fully tested, but nothing else was working. Within four months, Biz was in remission, meaning her cancer is not gone but not presently active, and she was healthy. It was a miracle. By the fourth grade, she had a full head of hair.
Becky, my second cousin who also had cancer, is currently in remission. Before Toronto ever got the idea for the hats with hair, Becky’s son Nathan had already made his own version of the hat.
While Becky was going through chemo, she lost all of her hair. Nathan, on the other hand, had a full head of hair and he decided that he would cut off his hair and make it into a hat for Becky to wear.
Making a hat for Swanson was a wonderful and loving project for Toronto to do for her friend. I find it disturbing, however, that it has turned into a marketed product.
Even though the hats are exciting for other cancer patients who will now be able to purchase these hats, I am appalled that Susie Toronto is making money off what should have remained a kind gift for a friend in need.