The Headshave...

My Wonderful Family after the Headshave

Today, the 14th June 2017, was another one of those massive hurdles that many patients have to overcome on this cancer journey... and I would be lying if I said I hadn't been dreading it. But it happened at the ideal time - because the very morning of the headshave day, I had awoken to a pillow full of hair... The clumps that fell out in the shower that morning landed in the shower-tray with a clearly audible "slop" sound... followed (and I don't meant to be so vain...) by the steady flow of tears down my face.

With mum and dad before the shave

The 4 of us before the Shave

Fergus and I had known my hair was inevitably going to start falling out around the middle of the 3rd week. Rather than wallow in sadness, or face the dread of going out and meeting our nearest and dearest over the coming days and weeks with my bald head, we decided to throw a house party! We wanted to turn something overwhelmingly negative into something positive.

I was also concerned how our niece, nephew and all our 'adopted' nieces and nephews would react when they would see my bald shiney head! Children are real deep thinkers. I feared they might associate sickness or medication with hair loss, so they were also part of our motivation to turn this into something special, and a little fun!

We started a fundraising page for Cancer Care West (CCW) on the "everyday hero" website. I am proud to say that we have nearly E9000 raised to help them. CCW are a largely voluntary organisation in Galway that help cancer patients and their loved ones on the cancer journey, and after... They offer amazing services, including counselling, lymphoedema treatment, physio, reflexology, art therapy and much more. Little did I know how much I was going to depend on them in the future months...and years.

My Rock

We had both our families over to the house along with my hairdresser Mary who kindly offered to do the headshave. It must have been difficult for her to have to shave off a friend's hair. But I can say that I will be eternally grateful that it was someone I called a friend that was there to do it for me on the day. I will never forget the sound of the scissors cutting through the platted hair, or the vibrations of the electric razor over my scalp... And when it was all done in the privacy of my bedroom while everyone waited downstairs, she quietly cleaned up and left.

Fergus was waiting outside the bedroom door and came in when she was finished. I couldn't help but cry when I looked in the mirror.... I was beginning to look less like Serena and more and more like a cancer patient... but Fergus came in, touched my head and simply said, "hello beautiful"... then he put his arms around me and held me until I was ready to go downstairs and meet everyone.

Cuddles from a shaved Fergus and a hairy Betty!

As we walked down the stairs, everyone had lined the hallway and the kitchen. It was like coming downstairs to a hero's welcome - there was clapping mixed with smiles and tears...and a lot of hugs. Then I was handed a shot of Sambuca, declared the party started, - we moved on to the other's head shaves! Avril, God bless her, was amazing! She had beautiful long brown hair and got it all shaved off! Liam, with his thick head of white hair and life long beard, shaved it all off. None of his family had ever seen him without a beard! And even Fergus shaved his head too, offering to keep it shaved for as long as I was bald if that would help me feel better! But I couldn't let him do that, I love his hair!

The kids got involved too with the electric shavers and joined in the 'fun'. For them it created a sense of fun and from then on, they never asked any questions as to why I was bald.