Variety Hair with Heart Month - November
Alopecia Awareness Week 8-17 November
During November the Variety Hair with Heart program celebrates more than 7,000 people who have cut their long hair in the past year to help make wigs and raise money for Variety – the Children’s Charity. These big-hearted Aussies have given their hair the chance to change kids’ lives.
The hair choppers have patiently waited for their hair to grow and put out a call for fundraising to chop off their long locks.
Once cut, they hair has been turned into a wig for people who have lost their hair due to a long-term medical condition such as alopecia.
More than $1.5m has been raised in the past year for Variety – the Children’s Charity to help kids who are sick, disadvantaged or have special needs. This could be granting a wheelchair to a child living with a disability or a scholarship for a child living with disadvantage to help with their artistic, sporting or academic dreams.
Variety Hair with Heart fundraiser Samantha Teoh says she wants to help change kids’ lives.
“I have two kids and all I want for them is to feel normal and to fit in. Cutting my hair off is a small thing I can do to help other kids.”
Charlotte Adamson developed alopecia when she was seven years old but didn’t receive a wig until she was 12.
“I suddenly lost my hair over two weeks when I was seven years old. It was a really traumatic experience for me, and I ended up moving schools three times,” said Charlotte.
“It wasn’t until I got a wig and started to feel like I fitted in again that I settled back into to school. Granting a wig to kids who have lost their hair can change their lives.”
Variety Hair with Heart program has grown from Matthew and Rebecca Adamson who established the Princess Charlotte Alopecia Foundation to raise awareness of the condition and funds to supply quality, human hair wigs to people with Alopecia when their daughter Charlotte was diagnosed with Alopecia.
In 2013, the foundation became part of the Variety family, becoming the Princess Charlotte Alopecia Program. Building on the amazing work of Matthew, Rebecca and their volunteers, it has continued to grow – granting wigs to children with Alopecia and accepting hair donations to make into wigs for those whose hair loss is due to a medical condition. In mid-2016, the initiative was renamed Hair with Heart.
For further information on Variety Hair with Heart visit variety.org.au/get-involved/hair-donation/
