Leuven – 11th of March 2010 – excited faces at Alma 2 anxiously await their turn in the hairdresser’s seat to have twenty centimeters of their hair cut for Pantene’s second edition of the ‘Geef om Haar’ campaign. A professional hairdresser’s salon is improvised at the venue for this special occasion. Not exactly the scene you would expect to see when queuing for your usual lunch with friends between classes. Eleven students chose to cut their hair to donate it to the Belgian Cancer Fund (Stichting Tegen Kanker) so cancer patients are given the chance to buy a wig.

Every year sixty thousand people are diagnosed with cancer in Belgium. Next to the emotional pain cancer patients suffer from, the disease also often holds a lot of financial implications for the patient and his family. The campaign tries to do something about this by providing something which is very close to their hearts: keeping their appearance as it was before the diagnosis. It provides a solution for the inevitable loss of hair cancer treatment often brings about. Wigs are expensive in Belgium as they can easily cost up to a couple of hundred euros which often the patient cannot afford to spend. During the campaign of 2008 we have received 2500 ponytails and people have continued to send us their hair throughout the year, so we actually never stopped the campaign, says Inge De Backer, External Relations Manager Pantene. With the help of Sophie Dewaele, ambassadress of the campaign, 4380 people have donated their hair (to date) and around five hundred people in total have received financial aid to buy a wig.

‘I was nervous in having my hair cut today; I have had long hair since elementary school so it was hard to imagine how it would look like after the cut. But then I thought it was for a good cause so this convinced me in the end to donate my hair and just go for it. I don’t think my friends will recognize me tonight!’ A 22 year old medicine student happily returns home after having attended the ‘Geef om Haar’ event in Leuven, which was organized by Medica, Leuven’s medical student association. Ten others followed her example by donating their preciously cared for ponytails and received a free haircut by Kreatos in return. ‘The big success of this campaign shows how relevant the issue is with cancer patients’, says Dr. Pia Cox from the Belgian Cancer Fund. The students of Leuven can be proud of what they did that day.

Everyone can support this campaign in three different ways: you can have your ponytail cut (which needs to be at least twenty centimeters) during one of Pantene’s haircut days, or, if you don’t have long hair, you can also have your regular washing, brushing and cutting done for 25 euro at one of the participating hairdressers on these days which will be donated to the Belgian Cancer Fund*. Alternatively, you can have your twenty centimeter ponytail cut done at one of the participating hairdressers for free outside these days as well. As a last resort you can also make a financial contribution to the Fund on the account number 000-0000088-88 with the reference ‘Geef om Haar’. You can find more information on www.geefomhaar.be or on www.facebook.com/geefomhaar. If you would like to tell The Voice about your haircut experience please feel free to do so! |