It was painful ... but I kept my locks
BBC Radio 4 presenter Kirsty Lang admits that after being diagnosed with breast cancer in May this year, one of her first concerns was whether she would lose her hair.
‘I had surgery to remove the tumour in my left breast, which was about the size of a 10p piece, and radiotherapy,’ said the broadcaster, who lives in West London with her journalist husband Misha Glenny and their son.
‘Chemo was recommended because the cancer had started to spread, but my consultant said I was a borderline case.
‘During that conversation, I admit that one of my first thoughts was about losing my hair. I’m not vain but I planned to keep working. Losing your hair is like having “I have cancer” tattooed on your forehead.
‘It’s not that I was embarrassed. I just didn’t want to be treated like a sick person.’
Kirsty, host of arts show Front Row, was offered scalpcooling to be carried out by a nursing assistant at the private LOC clinic in Harley Street, Central London, during each of her 12 weekly chemotherapy sessions.
‘He pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of a woman with thick brown hair and told me that she’d just finished having chemo, and explained that she’d used the cooling cap,’ Kirsty added. ‘Having the treatment involved wearing the cap for an hour before chemo, for the hour during, and for an hour afterwards.
‘It is painful, a bit like brain-freeze when you eat an ice cream – a sort of throbbing cold headache. The pain lasted for 20 minutes and I made sure I was talking to a friend or doing one thing to distract myself.
‘Keeping warm helped too, and I took to wrapping myself in one of those portable electric blankets.’
After the seventh session Kirsty’s hair began to thin, and she estimates that she lost about 50 per cent.
‘I realise that picture of the woman with thick brown hair wasn’t the norm – I’ve been left with a bit of a bald patch on my crown, which has now started to grow back. If I have my hair up, you can’t really tell.
‘I have a wig for special occasions but I don’t wear it dayto-day. For me, the additional few hours and discomfort was absolutely worth it.’