Milford girl donates hair in memory of friend lost to cancer

MILFORD – Seven-year-old Madelynn Debelis recently donated her hair to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program in memory of a friend. Madelynn got the idea in May 2011, when she sat down to make a get-well card for her friend Alex, a girl who was fighting cancer for the second time in 11 years. Madelynn’s mother, Lynn Debelis, explained to her that Alex had lost all of her blond hair because of her cancer treatment and all of the medicine she had to take. Debelis also reminded Madelynn about when the librarian at her school had been out sick, and upon returning, her long hair was gone, replaced by a different short hairdo. Debelis explained that the medicine to treat the breast cancer caused her hair to fall out, too, but that she had gotten a wig to wear to work. They had a conversation about how wigs were made, and how some nice people grow their hair long and then donate it to places that will make wigs for people just like her librarian and for Alex, too. It was that day that Madelynn decided she was going to have long hair and then donate it.