I’ll be shaving my head in a few days. But I’m not shaving my head as a fundraising event-I’m sharing it as a fundraising event.

Many of you who know me don’t yet know that I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer just before the summer.  I’ll be losing my hair due to the treatment shortly, so I can’t claim that I’m shaving it for this fundraiser. But as you also would know, my social media presence is decidedly sparse (I have social (media) anxiety!) so like most other things, I hadn’t planned on sharing my diagnosis on that format. 

What has prompted me to share my news like this is the haunting significance to me now of a refrain that I’ve never forgotten from a dear friend and mentor many years ago, while she was battling cancer. That was Gloria Baird. She always used to say “do not waste your suffering”.

Whenever I see Gloria’s last photos what captivates me is an almost  playful sparkle in her eye that looks as if she’s harbouring the grand secret to happiness the rest of us might only dream of discovering. She never stopped sharing that sparkle with people until the day she passed.

With Gloria’s words ringing in my ears I contemplated how I might not waste this chance to use my challenge to give someone else a chance.  

I work for HOPE worldwide so I know firsthand how £2000 could help. One lovely woman I had the chance to work with was 64 years old, working as an NHS carer but was days away from losing her home.  She would leave me messages in the middle of the night wailing and praying to God to help her be housed before she was evicted and made to sleep on the streets. We managed to find a property for her that only required £170 to move in. While typically we provide £500 or more to help people with move in costs, you can see how £2000 could literally help a number of real life individuals avoid the streets this winter. 

I’ve decided to publicly share my diagnosis and my “hair journey” because I realised through all this how much I need the support of friends and family and also because I realise how much people genuinely have wanted to help and I’ve often been too sick to even reply to messages offering support! But one thing you can do is help me and help HOPE worldwide to help a few people this winter come off or stay off the streets or to get into recovery through HOPE UK’s two life-changing programs. You can read more about the work of HOPE UK in the links. 

https://www.hopeworldwide.org.uk

https://instagram.com/hopeworldwide_uk?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.facebook.com/HOPEworldwideUK