Helping a Cancer Patient

Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. It is mostly a fatal disease that affects both men and women. I had met my mother’s friend, Sita, who had been suffering from breast cancer and now was suffering from lung cancer. Due to this, she lost all her hair and was forced to put a blanket, covering her bald head. She had a mother who was in her eighties. She could not hear properly and had severe fever and cough.

I had cut my hair a few months back and my mother had collected it from the barber’s shop in a big plastic cover. She always had the idea of using it for herself as she had very little hair, or giving it as an offering to a temple, or letting it go with the waves of the Shankamugam beach. None of these things happened. Like that, months passed without any change.

One morning, my mother was reading the newspaper. There was an article about cancer patients wanting natural hair to use as a wig instead of fake hair as it was very heavy and difficult for them to use. My mother got a brilliant idea. She knew of a man who would make wigs with natural hair. So, that day, she took that plastic cover with my hair in it, went to that man, and in a week, the wig was ready. She got it from him and gave it to Sita.

My mother and I were so happy about what she had done that it marked a significant day in both our lives.