in June last year, I added a significant streak of blue “semi-permenant” hair colour to my blond bob in order to help raise awareness for Harrison’s Fund, fighting to find a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It seemed like such a good idea at the time; Blue Hair Day – a great way to get people to notice and learn about this terrible disease. What I hadn’t expected was that, almost a year later, I’ve still got remnants of that “semi-permanent” blue. What a nghtmare!
“I take it you won’t be going blue again this year!” My husband, John, commented when I mentioned the new website for Blue Hair Day was up and running. “what a bloody nightmare that’s been!” And that’s when it hit me (okay, it takes time to get things sometimes); my silly bit of blue hair was far from a nightmare. At worst it was a silly frustration that looked a bit like I’d over-done colouring and caused a reaction.
The real nightmare, the one I’d missed was Duchenne itself. The nightamre is what every family living with Duchenne wakes up to every day, only to discover it’s real. My hair was trivial and had, in fact, served its purpose well; by staying put, by being anything but “semi-permanent” I had been given a daily reminder of why I’d gone blue in the first place. I was raising awareness of somethign every child and parent with this awful disease has no choice about; Duchenne isn’t semi-permanent, it’s real, wrecking lives and in urgent need of investment to find a cure and save the lives of every child (almost exclusively boys) fighting every day against this debilitating, terminal condition.
Will I be going blue again this June? Of course I will and this time, I plan to talk to every single person who comments on my hair and tell them “It’s permanent, just like Duchenne.”
Please visit the Facebook page for Blue Hair Day and “like” to follow all the plans and how you can get involved in making a difference. Are you brave enough to go blue?
http://facebook.com/BlueHairDay
Dinah x