To raise £900 to cover printing costs for a further 500 books of 'The Lady with No Hair' to be able to gift to charities and organisations.
by Samantha Vale in Leighton Buzzard, Central Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
£900 gives us 500 books.
£1500 gives us 1000 books.
I am so grateful to have hit my £900 goal so quickly. I have included a scratch target (not allowed to close the crowdfunder early) for anyone still wanting to support.
An additional £600 means I can print 1000 copies of The Lady with No Hair.
Thank you xx
Hello!
I am raising funds to print a further 500 copies of my book to be able to gift to women who might find it of value and comfort.
I am currently talking to Macmillan, Future Dreams Charity and Wycombe Hospital, (three organisations that have supported me through my own journey) to be able to provide them with copies of my book to distribute and gift accordingly.
Most of below was from my initial crowdfunder.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
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I'm Samantha and I am mum to Jack and Molly. In 2019 I lost my hair through chemotherapy as part of my treatment for breast cancer.
As a young mum of 36 at the time, I was faced with not only meeting my own emotional needs around cancer and all of its faces but those needs of my children, then age 5 and 7. Trying to make sense of things that don't make sense to adults, let alone to children.
Part of my my own healing was to be able to co-write this book with my son. Putting his and his sister's perspective to paper. To be able to help other children with parents experiencing hairloss, whether due to cancer, alopecia or other.
In 2020 I crowdfunded to be able to cover the costs of illustration and publishing.
Overnight we smashed the target and within a week I had doubled the initial amount, this allowed me to order a further 400 books to be able to give to Maggies Cancer Centres around the UK.
This is not a commercial endeavour, this is a book I wrote to help other mums and children who find themselves in a similar position that I was.
I can not offer you the world but I can offer your name in my heartfelt 'THANK YOUS' in print.
I am grateful for whatever you can give.
What I have learnt is that it is better to talk to children about the visual differences we may have, help them manage their own emotions and encourage communication and compassion, rather than 'shhhing' children and telling them off for staring because we don't know the 'right' thing to do or we ourselves feel embarrassed.
I wanted to give my kids a voice and show them that no matter who you are, you can make a difference. If they can help other children and families who might be going through something similar then I think that is a pretty productive use of a life curveball.
Thank you xxx