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Wick mum going through cancer treatment raises £1600 for good causes





Sarah Scollay wearing her new wig, complete with headband.
Sarah Scollay wearing her new wig, complete with headband.

Wick mum Sarah Scollay has spoken of the sense of relief she felt after having her hair cut off and gifting it to a children’s charity.

Rather than allow her long blonde locks to fall out gradually as a result of her treatment for cervical cancer, Sarah organised a head-shave and donated her hair to the Little Princess Trust.

The national charity provides free real hair wigs to children and young people who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment or other conditions.

Sarah (42) also ran a GoFundMe page with donations to be shared equally between two causes close to her heart, Encompass Caithness and the Wick Youth Club sensory room. She raised a total of £1600.

“I’m delighted because my target was only £1000, so I’ve got £600 more – I wasn’t expecting that,” she said.

Sarah is chairperson of Encompass Caithness, the pressure group campaigning for new and improved social care services for people with autism, neurodivergent conditions and additional support needs. She has two children who are both on the autistic spectrum.

Sarah arranged for her friend Kirsty Newlands, a barber, to cut off her hair earlier this month. Her first six weeks of chemotherapy are at Caithness General Hospital, with the third session scheduled for Wednesday.

“In the first two weeks I walked the chemo but it hit me badly at the weekend,” Sarah said. “I just felt like the life had been sucked out of me.

“You’re fighting with your mind the whole time. In your mind you’re saying ‘come on, you can do this’ but your body is saying ‘no, you’re not’.

“My mum and dad are around helping a lot. I’m feeling guilty but I had no option but to give in at the weekend, it just floored me.

“It’s not easy, that’s for sure. It affects your mood, too. You’re that used to doing things yourself and then you’re having to rely on people, and that’s a hard pill for me to swallow.

“It’s the weekends that usually take a dip because you’re on steroids on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, then no steroids at the weekend. I think this is going to happen now and again and I just have to accept it’s part of the process.

“If I want to get better, and I want to see the other side of this, I have to go through this to get there. You’re constantly telling yourself that when you’re having a bad day, ‘this will soon pass’.”

Sarah had made it clear previously that she was determined to create something positive from her diagnosis by donating her hair to the Little Princess Trust.

“It’s going to go to a bairn, that’s the main thing,” she said.

Sarah is now getting used to her own wig. “It’s done now and vanity has taken a back seat,” she said. “I’m delighted with the wig – it looks as close to my hair as possible.

“My one comes with a headband because basically it’s for beginners. Wigs are actually more complicated than you think!

Kirsty Newlands on the left with Sarah Scollay after the head-shave earlier this month.
Kirsty Newlands on the left with Sarah Scollay after the head-shave earlier this month.

“I thought I’d hate looking at myself in the mirror but I’ve kind of accepted it. It’s better this way because it has been in my control.

“I was upset on the day my friend came round because I knew that my hair was going. But I knew that I had to find something positive in it, and that’s why I wanted to donate my hair.

“I could have left it to come out and it would have been a lot worse for me. After I did it, I felt relief. That sounds weird, but it was done and there was no going back, it’s over and done with.

“The only way you can look at it is as positively as you can. You’re going to have days where you don’t feel so positive, but you’ve got to grab on to anything that gets you through it.”

Sarah takes encouragement from the advances that have been made in cancer treatment over the years.

“The lassies in the chemo ward in Wick have been amazing with me,” she said. “They’ve been so nice. I couldn’t have asked for better nurses.

“They’re hitting me with everything, and it is intense, and it is hard. But I’m glad that they think I’ve got the chance to survive it. My two boys need me.”


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