Coming to terms with hair loss.

my mother was 59 and looking forward to stopping work. My parents had always dreamed of going on a cruise. A trip of a lifetime from Lancashire to sailing the world on a cruise ship. I got home from working in a factory and mum was in bed, something was very wrong, she was always on the move.

I was the youngest of 7 children and at 19 I was the only one still living at home. My siblings had all married and had families of there own to care for. I was close to all my sisters but especially Kathleen, who was 24 years old, she had just found out she was pregnant. So at home, it was me, mum and dad.

Mum was very sick and within 3 months had died from what I now know as a qualified nurse to be bowel cancer. Our family was devastated but we had a glimmer of hope, Kathleen’s baby was due in January 1973 – we had Christmas and a new addition to the family, so we had a beacon of light at the end of a dark tunnel.

December 17th came I was at home on my own, dad was working, there was a knock on the door. Kathleen’s husband stood there. I asked excitedly had the baby come early, then I noticed his face. Kathleen had been involved in a road traffic accident and she and her unborn baby had died.