Lesly Viera is a freshman biology major and the president and founder of Locks for Cause, an NSU organization, which assists in getting hair donations for wigs that are donated to children suffering from hair loss caused by disease.. She is the local project leader for Rotaract and teaches belly dancing at Gigi’s Academy. Her favorite place is the ocean and her favorite quote is, “Cancer is a word not a sentence.”
My junior year of high school I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a large B-cell lymphoma between my heart and lung in stage three out of four. I immediately began chemotherapy, and I remember the first few weeks were the worst. I was always nauseated and could not hold anything in my stomach. I lost 10 pounds in one week. I also had terrible migraines that wouldn’t let me sit up on my bed, and my whole body was in pain.
By the second week my hair began to fall out. To be honest, it was getting really annoying, so I just called my boyfriend over and had him shave it off.
As the weeks passed, I had visitors every day who made me feel better. I never realized how important positivity was until then. I decided to try my best to get out of bed and go out with my friends in order to get my mind off of the negative and just think about having a good time.
At the time, I was unfortunately being homeschooled and began begging my doctor to let me go back to my school. After four months of begging he finally let me return. Although I was still undergoing chemotherapy, I felt that anywhere was better than my bed and being surrounded by people helped me take my mind off the side effects.
Often I would go to the hospital to receive treatment and go straight to school.
Once I was in school, I began to think how I could take what happened to me and make a difference. I remembered that in the hospital many of the girls I met who said they would not go out without their wigs. They said they felt uncomfortable and did not want people to stare at them. Although, I did not care and would go to school bald, I knew how they felt and could see that their self-esteem was a lot lower than it should be.
I just began imagining about all the other girls who could not afford wigs because a good wig can cost up to $300.
I thought of how impossible it would have been for me to have gotten better if I was always at home. That’s when I decided to organize a large-scale event where people could get their hair cut for free and all the ponytails collected would be donated to an organization that makes wigs for children suffering from hair loss due to disease. After much planning I was able to get stylists to volunteer their time and had the event in November, one month before finishing my treatment. I advertised the event in the Miami Herald, on several television stations and even on Power 96. The day of the event, more than 300 people arrived, and we collected 250 ponytails.
At NSU, I started an organ-ization called Locks for Cause, which will be doing the same thing. NSU has given me the chance to make a difference once more, this time with even more support from new friends and faculty. After seeing all this happen, I realized that I was diagnosed with cancer for a reason — a good reason. I am now in remission and have been off treatment for a year.
