Positivity: Brownstown woman donates her hair, urges others to do the same

From Metro Detroit — a cancer survivor wants to help kids who are fighting illness:

January 14, 2007

In February 2006, Brownstown resident Liela Shrum — just 31 years old and with no family history of cancer whatsoever — was diagnosed with breast cancer.

As Shrum battled the disease, she found strength in herself and her family and friends. The ordeal also gave her a new understanding for what others in a similar situation go through.

The hairstylist at HairID in Trenton became involved in Children With Hairloss, a Downriver-based nonprofit group that provides wigs for children who have suffered medical-related hair loss.

Prior to the start of chemotherapy treatment at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, Shrum was told that she would lose all her hair. She decided to cut off six inches at that time and donate the hair to Children With Hairloss.

One of the things that Shrum loves most about the nonprofit organization is that it provides wigs, completely free of charge, to any person 21 years old and under who has hair loss due to illness.

Regina Villemure of South Rockwood, founder and chief executive officer of the organization based in South Rockwood, conceived the idea 23 years ago when her then-3-year-old niece was undergoing treatment for leukemia.

“At that time there were no wigs made for children,” she said. “They would have to wear adult wigs cut down, and you could really tell.”

Today her niece is a healthy new mother, often speaking at engagements promoting the organization.

Villemure said that raising children and working made implementing her idea a long time coming, but it has been up and running since 2002.

Shrum and her husband of four years, Jayson Shrum, were settling into parenthood when she learned she had cancer. At that time, their oldest daughter, Leena, was just 1 1/2 . Jenna was 9 months.

“I had never done a self-breast examination in my life,” said Shrum, “but I was in the shower and I noticed a marble-sized lump.”

Shrum thought that, since she had stopped breast-feeding Jenna only a few months before, her body was just adjusting from her pregnancy and that the lump was nothing to worry about.

When her husband came home from work that night she told him what she had found. He urged her to go to her doctor and have the lump checked.

“I knew in my heart that there was nothing to worry about,” said Jayson. “There was no way that a 31-year-old woman in good health could have anything to worry about.”

But the news was not good.

Following a trip to the doctor and a mammogram, Shrum was called back for an ultrasound and an emergency biopsy, resulting in the diagnosis of stage III breast cancer.

Behind the marble-sized lump Shrum felt was a 10-centimeter mass. That discovery saved her life.

“The doctors told me that the lump was a work of God,” she said, “because if the lump had not come out, they would have never found it.”

Shrum decided that she would have a bilateral mastectomy — a decision that her doctor did not initially support.

“He felt that it would be far too painful and there would be too much down time for me, but I have two little girls, and I did not want to have to go through this again down the road,” she said.

Following surgery, Shrum underwent six rounds of aggressive chemotherapy and 6 1/2 weeks of radiation, every Monday through Friday.

When Shrum started losing her hair, she and her husband strapped their girls into their high chairs, gave them each a Popsicle, and let them watch while her husband shaved her head. “We did not want them to be shocked if I just showed up one day with it shaved off,” she said.

After Shrum’s head was shaved, her cousin, Dina Doyle, immediately told her that she wanted to shave her head, too.

Shrum felt that she could not let her do that, but she did offer to cut off 10 inches of Dina’s hair and that was also sent to Children With Hairloss.

Shrum returned to work after her treatment concluded in October 2006.

A stylist for 12 years, she now urges her clients, family and friends to donate their hair to Children With Hairloss. She just recently cut daughter Leena’s hair for the first time and donated it to the group. …..