Behind the Scenes - Jane Bingham

Jane Bingham - Adminstrator - Founder of the Facebook page Beautiful and Bald Barbie! Let's see if we can get it made

I am a married mother of 4. My children's ages are 22, 17, 16 and 9. My daughter being my youngest. I live in New Jersey and am a photographer and digital artist. 5 years ago I was diagnosed with Follicular Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, which is a white blood cancer that spreads through the lymph system. I have had many rounds of immunotherapy to treat the cancer. Immunotherapy began to stop working very good, so in the Spring of 2011 I began chemotherapy where I first experienced hair loss due to cancer treatment.

Seeing my long blonde hair come out in clumps in my hand was traumatizing to me. No matter how much you prepare for it, it is still shocking when it actually happens. That day, in tears, I called my sister-in-law who is a hair stylist and my good friend Tammy. They came over and we made a party of shaving my head. Tammy had hers shaved with me and my 2 teenage sons had their hair shaved into Mohawks for Mom. In their words "so you wont be the only one being stared at". I had a wonderful support group!

I learned how to wrap my head in scarves. I went wig shopping and bought 4 wigs. I bought a bunch of cute hats....I found out I do not like wearing wigs, they are hot and itchy especially in the summer. I found I only liked one or two favorite hats and I found I liked wearing scarves the best. My daughter, age 9, had some emotional struggle with seeing her mom lose her hair. She would try to copy me and wear scarves on her head too. I only went out once without anything on my head during that time.

My chemo regimine ended in October. By mid December I had almost an inch of hair back and was going without hats or scarves again. Then, I shaved off my 1 inch of hair I had grown in on January 18th in support of all the children and women in support of the Beautiful and Bald Barbie movement. This time when I shaved my head, I did it with boldness and without tears. I went on TV the next day for a live interview with my head uncovered to make a statement that women and children should not have to hide their bald heads. They should not have to feel embarrassed or ashamed or worry about people's reactions. It felt great and I show off my bald head proudly now! Because I know I am not alone and I know there are children and women that I am standing for, standing with together.

How Beautiful and Bald Barbie! Let's see if we can get it made Facebook page came to be...

I read an article about a little girl named Genesis who had received a one of a kind bald Barbie from Mattel because she was going through chemo treatments and didn't feel she could be a princess anymore without hair. I thought how wonderful it was that Mattel did that for her. I later found out they had made another one specialized for the little girl of the woman who tried so hard to get Mattel to make the bald Barbie for Genesis. I expressed on Facebook how great it would be if Mattel would make more. Someone suggested I make a facebook page to build support for such a doll to be made. So this facebook page was created.

That same day, my friend Beckie from the opposite side of America said she wanted to help me with the page. Beckie's daughter and I both were bald last summer, as her daughter Kinley was under going treatment for Luekemia. Beckie and I have known eachother for 10 years but as of today, have never met in person. We met in an AOL pregnancy chatroom when I was pregnant with my daughter. A few days later my friend Wendy, who is a member in the Cancer Chicks support group I run on facebook, said she would like to help us too. So she joined the administration. We learned that other pages similar to ours had started up around the same time as ours did. Alyse had one of those pages. We asked her if she would like to join forces and come on board at our page which she did and has been putting all her effort into the administration here. Then, Beth found our page. Beth was the woman who managed to get Mattel to make the one of a kind bald Pricess Barbie for Genesis and in the same time, unexpected to Beth, Mattel also made one for her daughter Sadie who was also being treated for cancer.  I was so excited to ask Beth to join the administration of the page with us.

What Jane has been involved with....

I have taken part of different fund raisers and support groups over the years. In 2008 I found that a few of my female photographer friends also had cancer. My friend Chris and I started a Facebook support group called Cancer Chicks, for women only who have had or have cancer...active or in remission. Our small group has been a sounding board and a shoulder for each of us.

In 2010, Chris passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. I wanted to find a way to honor her memory so I went in search of an organization that I could do a fundraiser in her honor. I found an organization that impressed me so much that I wanted to build our own fund raiser through them in honor of my friend Chris. That organization is The Gateway for Cancer Research DemandCuresToday.org where 99 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to cancer research. Where you can choose in what fund your donation goes into ie. pediatric cancer research fund, blood cancer research, colon cancer research, etc...You choose where your money goes into research.

I wanted to come up with a creative and different way to raise money. So my family did a Pink Hair Dare. If we raised $500 I would dye my hair pink. If we raised $1,000 my teenage son Seth would dye his hair pink. If we raised $2,000 my husband would dye his hair pink. Ultimately we raised over $2,500 for cancer research and went about our live for a month with pink hair.

I have continuously been impressed with The gateway for cancer Research. They issued a publication stating their support for a bald Barbie being produced. You can read their support for this here. http://www.demandcurestoday.org/node/16184 . I look forward to continuing work with The Gateway in helping raise funds and awareness for the need of cancer research. To find less toxic treatments and ultimately cures.

You don't have to wait for someone else to create a fundraiser for cancer research. You can do one yourself. Be creative, make it fun, make it challenging, Make it memorable!
http://www.demandcurestoday.org/