This Cancer Sufferer Wore Something New on Her Head Every Day to Raise Awareness

Sara Cutting wore a new item on her head every day for a year in a bid to raise funds for Macmillan, a cancer charity.

A cancer sufferer is raising awareness and money by embracing her baldness.

Sara Cutting, from Brighton, England, wore a new item on her head every day for a year in a bid to raise funds for Macmillan, a British charity that provides specialist health care, financial support and information to people affected by cancer.

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It meant 365 headdresses - from designer hats, knitted bonnets and military caps to cheese graters, flower pots and toasters. Her favorite was a radio, or "Radiohead." After snapping selfies, she shared them to her Instagram page.

Speaking to INSIDE EDITION, Sara, who was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in July 2014, explained that she had the idea a few days before starting chemo.

"I was feeling very, very scared at the prospect of losing my hair," she remembered.

So she decided to take control. She headed to a hair salon and asked the stylist to shave off half her blonde locks.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought," she said.

And she didn't want to stop there. "I wanted to raise some money so I thought of having different haircuts until my hair fell out," she said. "Obviously that project wouldn't last very long so I chose hats instead."

She began finding household items to put on her head, and designers also donated hats to the project.

 

When she started chemo last October, the project took her mind off the grueling five months of treatment.

"I had no idea of the impact chemo would have on me," she said. "But on the worst days, I knew I just had to get up, put on my make-up and put on a hat.

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"I'd be thinking about it in the middle of the night. Not 'will cancer will kill me?' but 'what am I going to wear on my head tomorrow?'"

Sara is grinning in every photo, but she says when she looks back at each image, she can remember how she was feeling that day - and many remind her of just how hard her battle was.

"When I look at them, it's quite powerful for me," she said. "It was a struggle for sure on some days. I look back on it now and I think, 'how did I do it?'"

 

But she did - and she raised awareness too. Each photo shared to Instagram came with the hashtag #checkyourbits to encourage others to look for lumps.

More than a year after Sara found hers, things are looking better. She has completed chemo, as well as four weeks of daily radiation, and is even training to run a half marathon in February.

She also has no plans to grow her hair back.

"I'm more confident about how I appear externally than I've ever been before," she said. "It's been very liberating."

She also plans to continue snapping selfies to raise money for Macmillan. On her fundraising page, she has already raised nearly $24,000.

"It has created such an interest [in the charity], and I like that humorous way it gets across an important message," she said.

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