DOMINION, N.S. — The heartbreak of seeing her daughter's head shaved and the trauma it caused the little girl has stayed with Janine Fiolek for the past quarter-century.
The Dominion woman's daughter, Marcia Fiolek, died of leukemia five weeks after diagnosis on Feb. 22, 1996. She was 10 years old.
Ever since, Janine Fiolek has stepped up to help other children going through the same trauma that her daughter faced 25 years ago.
On the anniversary of Marcia's death, Fiolek has had one year's worth of hair growth cut off to make wigs for children.
“When Marcia was diagnosed with leukemia, the doctor told her she was going to lose her hair,” Fiolek said. “It was terrible. She cried. She loved her hair. It was straight but she loved curls and always wanted sponge curlers in it.”
Fiolek said two weeks after Marcia was diagnosed, she underwent brain surgery at the IWK Children's Hospital in Halifax and her head was shaved in the process.
“She never ended up even having a chance to lose her hair.”
Fiolek said they had taken all the mirrors out of her hospital room.
“She was so sick I don’t think she was aware for a bit that she had brain surgery,” she said, adding eventually Marcia found out and took the news of her hair loss hard.
Her classmates in Dominion had been planning to all have their hair cut off when Marcia returned.
“She didn’t realize how much her friends loved her,” Fiolek said. “ I remember once she said, ‘Don’t tell my friends I have cancer as they won’t want to play with me anymore.’"
While Marcia was sick, Janine Fiolek’s cousin Cathy Facchin Gillis, owner of hair salon Visions of Venus in Bridgeport, had taken Marcia’s actual hair and made ringlets and incorporated it into a little blossom hat.
“Marcia ended up going to heaven wearing her own hair,” Fiolek said.
Since then, Fiolek has been determined to help other children.
“I just feel so bad for children going through this," she said. “It’s hard enough for adults to lose their hair but for children, it’s even harder.”
WIGS FOR CHILDREN
Facchin Gillis has cut Fiolek’s hair on the anniversary of Marcia’s death every February for the past 25 years.
She said it is emotional.
“But you’re doing it for such a beautiful cause,” Facchin Gillis said.
Over the past number of years, Facchin Gillis said she has seen more people stepping forward to donate their hair, crediting a lot of it to Fiolek’s campaigning for the cause.
“It’s a worthy and beautiful cause,“ she said. “Now that more people are becoming aware of it, more are doing it.”
Fiolek said to donate, hair needs to be at least eight inches long. It doesn’t matter if someone’s hair has been coloured or treated. She said she hopes others will consider this donation.
“Please everyone if you’re going to get your hair cut, please donate it,” Fiolek said passionately. “Put it in a ponytail, have it cut off. The people who do these free wigs for kids really need the hair.”
Anyone wishing to donate their hair for wigs for children can mail it to 360 Hair Inc., Unit 400-594 200th Street, Langley, B.C., V3A 1N3
Sharon-Montgomery-Dupe is a health and breaking news reporter at the Cape Breton Post.
