Logan Newby, eight years old, has been growing his hair since kindergarten for the sole purpose of cutting it all off and donating it to kids affected by cancer.
“My preschool teacher and my kindergarten teacher both did the same thing and it gave me the idea,” Newby says.
Newby will be getting his hair cut on March 29 in North Vancouver to donate it to Wigs for Kids.
Newby says that it feels good to be doing this in order to help other kids, adding that he might consider doing it again as he has enjoyed having long hair.
Asked what his friends think about what he’s doing, he says, “They think it’s pretty cool.”
Jordan Newby, Logan’s mom, said they have raised more than $300 for BC Children’s Hospital and that they are still accepting donations.
Following Newby’s decision to grow and donate his hair for children living with cancer, two of his family members decided to follow suit.
Newby’s adult cousins on his father’s side of the family, Sarah Teichroeb and her twin sister, Jenny Ryce, both cut their hair for donation this month. Teichroeb says she had been thinking of cutting her hair for a while but was nervous because she has had long hair for years.
However, she was so inspired after she heard about Newby’s cause, it made the decision easy. “If he can do it I can do it,” she says.
She also did it out of support for Newby himself. “When a young person wants to be (thoughtful) and supportive of other people I was like I gotta support this guy,” she says. That type of empathy is something she thought was lost.
According to Teichroeb, she had looked at donating hair prior but struggled to find a place to donate to, as BC Cancer Society is no longer accepting hair donations because the demand from patients for human hair has dropped. Synthetic wigs are substantially more affordable than real hair wigs.
Wigs for Kids offers free wigs for “every B.C. child who needs one.”
If you wish to donate to BC Children’s Hospital in support of Newby’s cause, please visit bcchf.ca/events/event-calendar/wigs-for-kids.
- Mathilda de Villiers, North Shore News