Drag queen comic donates wigs to give cancer survivors hope during Cancer Awareness Month
'It makes me feel like myself,' one recipient said
'It makes me feel like myself,' one recipient said
'It makes me feel like myself,' one recipient said
Leigh Shannon knows wigs. Not only is he the owner of Ritzy Rags, a wig shop in College Park, but he's also a legendary drag queen comic. Leigh has been performing in Orlando for decades. Needless to say, October is a big month at Ritzy Rags. Halloween is coming, so the flashy wigs will start flying off the shelves.
But October is also Cancer Awareness Month. So it is in October that Leigh donates wigs worth hundreds of dollars to cancer survivors. Survivors like Cheryl Baggitt. Last summer, she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.
"And I was told I had two years left to live. But I had amazing doctors, and I got through it," she said. However, the chemo ravaged her hair.
Cheryl was bold enough to show us what was going on under her wig. Leigh gently pulled it back. Her hair is growing back grey. It is coarse. She looks beautiful, but Cheryl disagrees.
"I look like I’m 60," she said.
And Leigh saw what that felt like through his mother's eyes. She died of cancer when she was 43 years old.
“Women, if you ask them and interview them, the fatigue, the chemo is terrible. But guess what they always come back to. They just don't like what they see in the mirror," Leigh said.
The wigs are beautifully styled and beautiful looking. Plus, they’re medical grade. Medical-grade wigs are lighter, can be washed, and they don't give you a rash.
But what they do give cancer survivors is a sense of who they were before and who they are now. Now admiring a new wig Leigh just put on her, Cheryl broke out into a big smile. She says the wig "makes me feel confident. It makes me feel like myself. But it makes me feel like I can get through this."
And it gave Cheryl joy because it was clear she did like what she saw in the mirror.