Female recruits to the Antioquian police force have donated their hair to charity, producing seventeen wigs for women suffering from cancer,the department’s chief of police Colonel Jorge Rodriguez announced Tuesday, reports El Tiempo.
The scheme is the result of cooperation between the cancer research institute Medicancer, wig making company Mundo Extensiones, and the Community Police of Antioquia
Throughout January the program asked women joining the police force to donate their hair, which would otherwise be thrown away after it was cut. Wigs were then created from the donations, and offered to cancer patients who lost their hair to chemotherapy treatments.
A recipients of one of the wigs, 68-year-old Ofelia Marin, who has been battling lung cancer for almost three years, expressed her appreciation for the donation, saying “I was very depressed. There were people who laughed … I feel calmer now.”
Colonel Rodriguez expressed his hope that the program will continue in the future, saying, “Many cut their hair and do not know what to do with it, while there are institutions that can [use it to] bring happiness to people with cancer.”