Hi, this is Harini. I am planning on shaving my head for two wonderful charities this March. The rhymes and reasons for this can be found below. Read on.
What am I doing?
On 9th March 2016, I will be shaving my head to fundraise for charity. The hair will be cut off in a ponytail and sent to the Little Princess Trust – a charity that provides wigs for children who have lost their hair through cancer treatment. I will then shave the rest of my hair off as well, as part of this fundraising effort.
Why am I doing this?
Over the last few years, I’ve had a lot of lovely comments about my hair – it’s long, healthy and fairly distinctive. It is the characterizing feature of my appearance. It may sound arrogant, but I love my hair – it’s the one physical aspect of my body that I feel vain about. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
But there are so many people in the world who can’t even afford basic necessities like food and clean water, never mind vanity. I am so lucky to be living a life free from the kinds of worries that millions of people in the world have to face. I guess that shaving my head is a symbolic way of giving up a luxury to help other people to get access to the necessities they so desperately need.
There’s another side to this too – I’m planning on donating my hair to the Little Princess Trust, a charity that makes wigs for children who lose their hair through chemotherapy. Cancer is a devastating thing for anyone to face, but must be especially confusing and difficult to come to terms with as a child. Losing their hair, on top of everything else, and looking “different” might make the process even harder to deal with. I can’t do much to help a child deal with cancer and chemotherapy, but I can do something to help with the added burden of hair loss – if my hair can form even part of a wig that helps one child with cancer to feel better, it’s worth it.
Shaving my head doesn’t need to be a big deal, and I’m certainly not saying that we should all give up anything we feel vain about because others might not have that luxury. I’m just hoping that you’ll consider it drastic enough to think about donating. Maybe this is a well-timed way for you to donate to a worthy cause, maybe you think I’m doing a good thing and would like to help with the effort, maybe you’re excited to see me bald – whatever the reason, even the smallest sum will make a difference, so please donate whatever amount you can, no matter how small.
The Charities
I have chosen two fantastic charities to support. If you choose to sponsor me, please feel free to donate to the cause you feel most strongly about, or to donate to both (you will need to donate separately on each of the pages below, sorry!). You can find out more about each charity and sponsor me by clicking on the pages below.
I’d also now like to tell you a bit about the Little Princess Trust, to whom my hair will be donated. This charity provides real hair wigs, free of charge, to children across the UK and Ireland who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment. The charity also assists children with other conditions that result in hair loss, including alopecia. This change can be very distressing for young children, and the charity aims to make the process more bearable. I will be donating my hair to this charity after the shave, though not fundraising on their behalf. If you would like to find out more about the charity and how to donate to them separately, follow the link here http://www.littleprincesses.org.uk/
**Donating & Practicalities**
If you are thinking about donating, you can do so online via the links below, or you can donate offline. Please feel free to give me cash in person, or via friends and relatives, and I will make sure the same amount is uploaded online to go to the charities. If you do this, then please do specify which charity you would like the money to go to.
To reiterate, each of the links only allows you to donate to that charity so to split a donation between the charities, you have to manually donate on one link and then again on the other, I'm afraid!
Finally, thank you for sticking with me and reading this. No matter what the amount, I really hope you decide to donate!
