Andrew Gee (Calare, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

We all know, or love, someone who has been diagnosed with cancer. On top of everything that cancer takes, the loss of one's hair during treatment is devastating. Each strand that falls can have a profound impact on one's sense of identity.

In March 2014 volunteers Mandy Wilding and Heather Larnach opened the doors of the Daffodil Wig Library in Bathurst. Since then, the pair have supported almost 1,000 women undergoing cancer treatment or facing conditions such as alopecia and stress to look in the mirror and feel like themselves again.

The salon, run entirely on donations, has grown from stocking 30 wigs to about 400 and provides each client with a free scalp treatment formulated by the team at Capital Chemist, Bathurst, and kindly labelled by Central Commercial Printers. This is thanks to the tremendous support of residents in the Bathurst community, like Harold Colley, who organised several Shearing For A Cause fundraisers.

Since 2019, Vanessa Pringle and her team, featuring Kym Westwood, Tracy Honeysett, Anna Smith and Amanda Stapleton, have sold thousands of bunches of daffodils at their Yellow Day drive through, while the crew at the Brilliant St Cafe in Bathurst, led by Georgia Bennett, have also been extremely generous.

The dedicated volunteers and supporters of the Daffodil Wig Library demonstrate that together we can make the weight of a diagnosis a little lighter and the day-to-day lives of cancer patients a little brighter.

See this speech in context