Area woman goes bald for cancer-research fund

Twelve-year old Sarah Singleton stepped to the clippers first, gingerly clipping at the edges of Andrea Allstun's soon-to-be-shorn hair.

"Just go right down the middle," Allstun encouraged her.

"No, you'll need the middle for a Mohawk," Singleton said.

The two dozen or so who had packed into Cutting Edge Salon in Jackson to watch the shaving laughed, many through quietly tearing eyes.

Allstun was having her head shaved as the culmination of a fundraiser to support childhood-cancer research. She met her $8,000 fundraising goal the morning of the shaving.

Andrea Allstun speaks to family and friends before having her head shaved Saturday. (Fred Lynch)

Since having been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013, Singleton had gone bald herself for a time, but her hair has started to come back. She has almost enough for a Mohawk of her own.

"I think it was pretty cool to be shaving someone else's head," she said, explaining the occasion made her feel thankful.

The next to step up and raze a stripe was Maegan Jensen, who lost her daughter Abby to cancer.

Jensen wore a custom T-shirt that read, "I hate cancer." In fact, most of the crowd's T-shirts were associated in one way or another with a family member or loved one.

Rachelle Weber's said, "Cancer sucks" as she took the next turn in honor of her son, Nolan, who died of brain cancer in 2013.

"Nolan told me not to ever shave my hair," Weber said. "This is for my son."

The shirts Allstun had made up for Saturday's event read, "Bald Never Looked So Good," and had printed on the backs the names of 14 area youths diagnosed with cancer. Hannah, Lexi, Abby, Nolan, Sahara, Sarah, Wyatt H., Wyatt G., Lance, Lorelei, Marshall, Hunter, Madyson and Brody.

"I'm lucky; my kids are healthy," Allstun said. "But their kids were healthy before they were diagnosed, too."

She said the St. Baldrick's Foundation was able to raise $24 million last year through similar fundraisers, and over $33 million has been raised this year.

Allstun said she never expected to realistically reach $8,000, much less top it.

"Last week on Wednesday, I wasn't even at [$4,000] yet," she said, choking up at the outpouring of donations that put her past the goal. "Money kept coming in and coming in."

"I love that it's another step toward awareness," Jensen said. "You can do something as simple as shave your head, and then they have more money for research."

Allstun said the donation site will remain open for a few more days.

She was all smiles, rubbing her buzzed pate after it was done, although her 2-year-old daughter Zola was puzzled and suspicious.

"It's on floor," she told her mother, pointing at the heap of hair. A footlong ponytail had been taken before the buzzing started for donation to Locks of Love. But despite the worthiness of her endeavor, Allstun said she'll probably not be doing a campaign like this again anytime soon -- definitely not until her hair grows back.

"I'm gonna have to come up with something else," she said.

Allstun's fundraising page is at stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/767289/2015.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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