Monica Byron of Cherry Ridge is only nine and a half years-old, but she believes in helping others.

A smiling fourth grader, she loves her family and her pets: a hamster named Mikey and a golden retriever named Lucy. She’s big on the song “Tattoo” by American Idol winner Jordin Sparks. And her favorite color is purple, hands down. But that’s only a small part of who she is. Monica has a heart for people. So when her mom told her about Locks for Love, which makes wigs for kids suffering from long-term medical hair loss, Monica willingly let her long hair grow longer, so she’d have the required 10-inch ponytail to donate.

Wednesday afternoon found the Lakeside Elementary School fourth grader getting her hair cut at Kate’s Creative Hair Design in Honesdale by owner Kate Carmody. Monica said it felt, “really, really good,” to know she was helping someone in need. According to the Locks of Love website: www.locksoflove.org, the top two recipients of the donated hairpieces are, firstly: kids living with alopecia, an, “auto-immune disease that causes hair follicles to shut down ...affecting 4.7 million people in the United States alone,” and secondly, kids with cancer, undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiation.
“Unfortunately, everybody you talk to has someone they know (affected by cancer),” said Monica’s mom, Denise. Her father-in-law, Tom Harold Byron passed away of lung cancer.

Mary Korb of Honesdale, who just happened to be at the hairdresser’s, too, talked about her daughter, Linda Doyle of Lansdale, PA, a breast cancer survivor. She recalled her daughter getting her haircut when she was six years old and how she wrapped the long braids in tissue and saved them in a cedar chest. But when she learned of Locks of Love, she donated them. Today, her daughter’s doing, “reasonably well,” she said. Every six months, she undergoes infusion treatments to strengthen her bones.

Washing Monica’s hair to prepare for the cut, Carmody says, she too, is a cancer survivor. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, she’s now cancer-free. Carmody, who underwent chemotherapy, says she got really sick and lost her hair. “It was not a fun experience, but it was worth it to have the rest of my life in front of me — to spend with my family,” she says. Just last week, her daughter, 12-year-old Lindsey, hit a home run, she says with pride. “I thank God I was there to see it.”

Carmody says cancer, “is not a death sentence. If detected early, it’s curable.”
Asked how often clients donate their hair for Locks of Love, Carmody says she gets “quite a few” or one every two to three months. Each one has a story to tell — somebody touched by cancer.

People donating to Locks of Love receive a postcard of thanks, mailed from the organization in Florida. “Your selfless act of kindness will benefit a Locks of Love recipient and change their life for the better ...Your donation will help return smiles to the many varied faces of our children,” the card says.