Students lead hair donation drive to make wigs for cancer patients
If you are planning to get a haircut soon, hold off on that. Let it grow longer, so that you can donate your hair to make wigs for cancer patients and make a difference in their lives.
Project Haircatchers, a non-profit initiative by a group of 23 students from different schools, hopes to make at least 50 wigs with the support of 200 donors this year. The wigs will be distributed to its four partner organisations - Bali Pink Ribbon, Cancer Society of Maldives, FeM Surgery and Breast Cancer Foundation (BCF).
The Early Bird Donation (EBD) drive began in June last year, when donors who met the requirement of having at least 22cm of non-curly hair could donate in advance. The donation took place from July to August last year, and 18 wigs were made with the support of more than 70 donors.
The main donation drive will take place this month and next. Some donors can go to Hazelina Salon, located at Delfi Orchard, till Feb 27, and D'tress Salon in Clementi from March 7 to 27.
But most donors still have to find their own means to cut their hair, as the salons provide free haircuts only to donors allocated by Project Haircatchers.
Project Haircatchers has also set up various means of fund raising to cover the cost of making wigs, which is a hefty $180 per piece. Donors can visit its Instagram account to find the QR codes, or visit the Give.Asia platform.
The project was initiated by students from Nanyang Girls' High School (NYGH) in 2017. It continued in 2018, but was briefly discontinued afterwards.
It was limited to NYGH students, who collected donations and donated hair. In both years, 78 wigs were delivered.
In late 2020, students Yeo Limin and Rebecca Koh, now both 19, decided to resume the project, as they were inspired to do more for those with cancer.
Student Megan Wong, 20, was part of the pioneering team in 2017, and continues to contribute to the project as a mentor.
She said: "I had a heart for cancer patients, as my younger brother is a survivor of childhood leukaemia. Hence, when there was this opportunity to pioneer a self-initiated project for cancer patients, I jumped at it.
"The experience has been very rewarding. In the first year, things were easier, as we received guidance from the Recycle Your Hair (campaign), and we could focus on raising awareness and volunteer recruitment.
"In the second year, we ran the event ourselves. It was not an easy process, but we were thankful to the NYGH staff for their continuous support to help us hit our targets and raise enough funds to produce all the wigs."
BCF partnered Project Haircatchers in 2017 and 2018, and will partner with the project again this year. BCF runs a complimentary Wig Loan programme which allows members to borrow the wigs and return them once they no longer need them, so other members can benefit from them.
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