Bid to boost wig scheme for Plymouth breast cancer patients

A charity is aiming to give everyone with breast cancer and facing hair loss a £150 voucher to help pay for a wig.

The Primrose Foundation has launched the Big Wig campaign in a bid to raise £2,500, which will be match funded.

Hannah Leach, 31, a singer-songwriter from Plymouth, was diagnosed with breast cancer in January and finished primary treatment earlier this month.

She said her wig - called Marilyn - had helped her to have the confidence to continue performing.

"Good day or bad day, especially the bad days, I know I can reach for her and I'll have the guts to go out on stage and do what I need to do," she said.

"She brings out the sparkle in me and, considering the journey I've been on in the last nine months, that's a really big thing."

Ms Leach received a voucher which partially funded her wig, bought at Roots to Rise, a community interest company in Plymouth.

She said the company - which specialises in wigs, and offers a safe space for people suffering from hair loss to explore their options - really helped her.

"When I got to that point where it was falling out in handfuls every day … I needed support," she said.

"You know, family have been amazing, friends have been amazing; but it's hard to explain to people what losing your hair means because they don't see it necessarily as a big part of the journey like, well, chemo and surviving that."

Janine Boylin, who owns Roots to Rise, said: "If you've just been diagnosed with cancer, all of a sudden you've got time off, you're financially burdened; but then you've got to find extra money just to make yourself feel human day-to-day when buying a wig.

"I just thought: 'Hmm. What can I do about this?'

"My main goal is to supply a wig to every cancer patient for free; that's the aim, that's the end goal.

"Alongside that, obviously, [there's] supporting people with hair loss and subsidise whatever they may need."

The Primrose Foundation, which supports people in Plymouth and the surrounding areas, and has been working with Roots to Rise, wants to be able to give a voucher for £150 to every patient for a wig.

Foundation leader Fiona Osmaston said the Big Wig campaign was running until Wednesday 18 October.

She said: "When you get a diagnosis, quite often the first thing you think about is: 'Am I going to lose my hair?'

"I know I did, and I was lucky enough not to have chemo ... and when you're going through treatment, and it can be quite tough, anything that helps you feel good is well worth it."

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