3-year-old boy joins mission to shed locks for cancer survivors

CHENNAI: Like most toddlers, Mir Katikala brings smiles all around. Now, he is set to put a big smile on the face of someone battling cancer. Mir is donating his long

hair

for the making of

wigs

for

cancer

survivors, who had lost their tresses during chemotherapy.

Around a year and six months ago, Mir’s

mother

Manisha, originally from Mumbai, came across a hair

donation

campaign ‘Hair for Hope-India’ on Facebook. She had lost her mother to cancer and was looking for ways to help others. Manisha couldn’t donate her own locks as chemically treated hair is ineligible for donation. So she decided to let Mir grow his hair out longer and donate it after his first haircut.

“People keep asking me when I will cut his hair. Some assume it’s for religious reasons. Though Mir is yet to understand all this, I am sure when he grows older he will know how he helped others and donate again,” Manisha said.

Hair donation is slowly gaining popularity among

schoolchildren

across the country and abroad, especially with some principals allowing boys to grow their hair out longer than what is prescribed in the dress code.

Nine-year-old Rishi from Kerala, who now studies in Amled School

Dubai

, decided to donate his hair after he heard that his schoolmate, six-year-old Maria Abraham, shaved off her hair. Maria wanted to provide emotional support to her mother, who was undergoing chemotherapy. Rishi’s brother Rohan, 6, also decided to take part in the initiative after their principal gave them special permission to grow their hair out.

Namita Malhotra, principal of Amled School Dubai, said she had once reprimanded Rishi for having long hair. “When he told me the reason, I was taken aback. It was so inspiring for us to see how these little ones proved age is no bar for doing a good deed. The school even started a hair donation drive where four other mothers joined in to donate their hair,” she added.

The only snag the boys faced was perhaps a case of mistaken identity.

“People have mistaken us for girls and taken us to the girls section when we went shopping,” Rishi was quoted as saying in a Facebook post put up by Premi Mathew, founder of the Hair For Hope-India campaign.

“Students as young as nine are organizing campaigns in schools under the initiative I started in 2013. Twelve inches of clean and completely dry hair in a ponytail or braid should be cut straight. It can then be mailed to registered organizations like Cope With Cancer in Mumbai,” Mathew said.

Apart from campaigns organized across schools and colleges in the country under Hair for Hope-India, schoolchildren also donate their hair individually.

Eleven-year-old Uthra Vijay, a Class VII student at La Chatelaine Junior College in Valasaravakkam donated her hair with her mother.

She had seen a child get upset when her scarf slipped, revealing her bald head. Uthra’s mother Subashree told her how cancer patients end up losing hair after chemotherapy. Subashree was already set to donate her hair and without batting an eyelid, Uthra said she would join her.

“I was taken aback as Uthra used to be so proud of her long hair. She donated around 10 inches,” Subashree said.

“For her, it was a way to give dignity to someone and she never complained of any teasing as she understood it was for a good cause. She hopes to donate her hair again,” her father, Vijay Vallabhai, said.

For more information on donating hair, visit www.protectyourmom.asia


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