How a trip to the hairdresser saved this 17-year-old's life
A trip to the salon is a fun experience for most teens, but for one British 17-year-old, a visit with her lifelong hairdresser saved her life.
Chloe Wickham from Devon, England, was getting a haircut when her hairdresser, Karen Gammon, spotted a lump on her head. With Wickham coming in often for haircuts, the stylist knew the bump hadn’t been there previously.
“When I parted Chloe’s hair, I saw a lump like half a peach stuck on. It was hard,” Gammon told the Daily Mail. “I didn’t want to scare her, but I’d never seen anything like it in over 25 years of hairdressing.”
Wickham and her mom scheduled a doctor’s appointment — and shortly thereafter, she had a tumour removed from her head. The mass had been sandwiched between layers of her skull.
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Initially, Wickham’s doctor dismissed the lump as “part of her skull,” but Wickham’s mother wasn’t satisfied — requested the practitioner send her daughter for an MRI a month later. As for Wickham, she wasn’t too concerned about the lump as she hadn’t had any further symptoms.
“I hadn’t noticed anything… When I felt it myself, I thought it felt a bit odd but I didn’t really think anything of it,” she said. “It wasn’t painful and I hadn’t any headaches or any other symptoms at all.”
After the MRI, Wickham and her mother knew things weren’t right when they overheard a comment from staff that a doctor needed to look at the scan. It was later that afternoon the doctor confirmed Wickham had a tumour.
“It’s just that word tumour — it’s so frightening,” said Wickham. “One minute I was a carefree teenager, the next I was frightened I might have cancer.”
Once the mass was removed, Wickham was notified the tumour was not cancerous. Despite the positive diagnosis, this wasn’t Wickham’s first conversation about cancer that year. Her friend — Agathe had been diagnosed with a brain tumour. She tragically died just months after Wickham’s successful removal.
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“I was heartbroken when Agathe died, she meant so much to me,” said Wickham. “And it made me even more grateful my tumour hadn’t been cancerous… I’m so grateful to Karen for noticing it while she was cutting my hair. If she hadn’t, it would have got bigger and may have been more difficult to remove.”
Following surgery, Wickham’s recovery was quick, being discharged from hospital two days later. For the Wickham family they were relieved the teen had made it through surgery with the tumour being removed in its entirety.
Wickham will begin the next chapter of her life in September when she’ll study interior design at university.
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