Please allow me this moment to share a personal story from this past week. For over three years I've been growing my hair out. My purpose was to donate it for the making of wigs for those fighting cancer. The time finally came  to get the ponytail cut off.

 Before the cut

My wife is a two-time breast-cancer survivor and fortunately each time it was discovered early enough chemotherapy was not required. Radiation, surgeries and on-going checkups were the treatment for her, but for many victims of cancer, chemo is necessary. An unfortunate side-effect of chemo is usually the loss of hair.

The decision to grow the hair out was a means for me to contribute back to the "community" of survivors. Those who survive cancer tend to help others going through the battle. I wanted to give back in a tangible way.

Just the tail, Alicia, just the tail!

Several months after starting to grow out my hair, my mother was diagnosed with both uterine and colon cancers. Radiation, chemo and surgery were all necessary and the inevitable loss of hair ensued. After a few months of remission, the cancer came back with a vengeance and she passed away the following summer.

Alicia has been waiting for this moment! 

A brother and sister have more recently battled cancer and each has found their own way to contribute back to the community. Cancer affects so many people both directly and indirectly. It is not something that you just "fix" like getting a new muffler for the car. It is something that becomes a part of your life. Survivors continue the surviving.

Did you have to take so much?

I do want to thank my family and my employer for allowing me this privilege to grow the hair longer than I've ever done before. Yes, I went through the mullet phase like everybody else did in the '80s, but never grew a ponytail. I did enjoy it and like the look, so I am growing it back out a little bit. I probably won't do another hair donation because the "gray percentage" is, uh, getting kinda iffy. For the next several weeks I'll battle the hair getting in the face until I can tie it back again, but it sure is a lot easier washing and brushing it!

The peanut gallery all taking pictures of the event

A final note regarding this. A coworker, at the telephone company for which I work as an engineer, lost her battle with breast cancer on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, we had weather-related, wide-spread power and telephone problems requiring a number of us to get on a day-long conference call as we handled the outages. Linda was always a major part of those calls and coordinated the efforts of the field personnel. She was missing from our conference call as she had delegated the task to others in her department whenever she was unavailable, but typically seemed to always be around when there was lots of action going on. Even when she was home sick, she'd find a way to join in and chase somebody unreachable down. As we were working, one of our VPs joined the conference call and let us know that she lost her battle with cancer just a few hours earlier. She was an integral part of our team and this news was personal to all of us.

After a lot of research, I had decided to donate the hair to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths. I encourage others to do the same. Cancer survival is not just about the physical battle, but also the emotional battle. As a survivor transitions into the "new normal," a wig is one of those things which can help more than we can ever know.

Ken Norton