Alopecia Friends & Cadbury World

Before the half term I told mum that I was feeling lonely about my alopecia. I haven't met many other people that have got alopecia since the awards. It makes me more confident seeing other people with alopecia because seeing how they feel about their alopecia I know I'm not the only one.

Eleanor & Erin

Mum arranged for me to meet up with Eleanor who I made good friends with at the awards but they live quite far away so we all met in Birmingham and stayed over the night too. We all went to dinner at Nando's. I was really cheerful when I saw Eleanor, she gave me a massive hug! After dinner Eleanor took me to the bathroom to take her wig off and show me that she has some new hair, I was really happy for her. Then I put on her wig and she put on my hat and we went back to the table laughing our heads off to show everyone.

Crazy Kids

Swap!

The next day we went to Cadbury World, we got loads of free chocolate all the way around. We learnt the history of chocolate. We saw people making chocolate and delivering it then we played in the play ground.

Cadbury's Drumming Gorilla

It was really good to see Eleanor and I really can't wait for Alopecia Camp next summer with BeBold

Alopecia Awareness Month

September is alopecia awareness month and Alopecia UK are asking you to "Give AUK a Hand" by donating to their charity! Text HAND83 £5 to 70070 or donate online https://www.justgiving.com/auk/  

THANK YOU!

New School

It has been the summer holidays, which we have JAM PACKED full of fun times, I'm sure Erin will have loads to share about what we've been up to but I just wanted to share this with you for now.

Erin got a place at the local village primary school 2 days after going back to school in September! It was very quick, we found out on the monday and she started on the tuesday!!

Today I am so utterly PROUD of Erin! She did a talk to her new class HERSELF (the teacher was going to do it) reading facts about alopecia from www.headzup.org.uk which is aimed at children AND her own personal experience that she wrote. She said she had lots of questions too that she answered. I wish I could have seen it. This is only her 3rd day at the school... She rocks!!

Well done Erin, love Mum xx

Thank you from Erin

This is Hannah, Erin's Mum, I wanted to write something today too. Erin is a selfless, intelligent, funny, loving, medium-sized girl (she'd kill me if I said little!) She astounds me with how well she deals with her alopecia, some may say she's fortunate that most of her patches are well hidden but she doesn't ignore them. Every now and then she'll ask me to take photos so she can see it, because in most part they are at the back where she cannot see in the mirror. Her hair is still constantly falling out, the patches are merging into areas and we understand that one day it might all just go... it might not either, that's the thing with alopecia, who knows what will happen!

As you can see she's lost a substantial amount over the last 7 months. Some bits seem to have grown again but overall the patch has grown.

Yesterday in the hairdressers she was looking through the colour chart, you know the ones with curls of hair in different colours picking out what colour she'd have if she did go bald (or almost bald) for a wig... she picked a sandy blonde for school and then red and purple for when she's a famous drummer!! This is totally unprompted. She understands we have no control and happily talks about options for different situations. I have told her that if she does lose the majority of her barnet that I will shave mine too for charity!

Erin gets so much from this blog because it shows how much other people care about her and of course it's nice to think that other children with alopecia could read this too. If you go back to when she first found out, the progression of her dealing with alopecia has been positive and quick for a girl of just 8 years old. I'm very proud of her. What neither of us expected was how much people have reached out to show their love, some even send her presents! She's not expecting anything from anyone and has never been a spoilt child so she truly loves everything from words to hats that comes her way. We are both genuinely really touched by everyone's support.

Here is a video we put together last night...
With thanks to Laura from Tea & Honey Bee's Design for the little monsters

Rocco And Luna,

Me & Rocco

Rocco and Luna (my dogs) are crazy, funny, exciting and awesome. They're both shorthaired pointers, basically the same breed. My two crazy puppies sometimes play tug together and sometimes cuddle. Also they both have really soft hair at the back of their ears.

Rocco

I love them because they have a good sense of humour, silly when they want to be silly, smart and sometimes weird. My puppies are also loving because when you need a cuddle they will go up to you on the sofa and cuddle you when you're sad.

Me & Luna

Drumming

My Drumming is so epic because I practice every day but only do it for 10 or 15 minutes a day. I do drum lessons every Saturday at 4 o'clock (in the afternoon). I do drum lessons because I want to be a drummer and I'm just interested in drumming.

Drumming is sort of weird and sort of fun because basically you are just crashing the cymbals and bashing the drums that's the weird and fun part. You use energy by playing on a drum set.

When my Dad came home today he brought a new drum set, it was a surprise. I saw him come through the door with a new snare and cymbal and thought it was just those but it is a whole set! On my drum set there are 3 tom toms, 1 snare, 1 bass, 1 high hat (cymbals) and 1 crash (cymbal). I was speechless and excited to play it.

Be Bold Be You Children's Awards

My Awards

On Friday 21^st I went to my awesome awards, it was soooo EPIC!

Before the awards I was excited and worried, I was excited because

I have been waiting for ages and I was worried because I thought

that I wouldn’t make any friends.  

                My Friends

 I made a friend called Eleanor, we went in the photo-booth

7 times together! In 1of the photos Sophie (Eleanor’s sister)

 is in it because Sophie jumped in on the 2^nd photo of

 the 4 photos.

At The Award Ceremony

  When they were giving out the awards they finally got to

  me and said :“She made a blog for alopecia kids and we

 look at it…………..ERIN WALKER !”and that is how I got

my award. I felt weird and happy because I was proud but it was a bit embarrassing going to the front in front of all the people. When I look at my award it makes me smile.

Drums & Dogs

We went to Wales to get a new puppy, we called her Luna, she is black and white and cute. It took 4.5 hours to get there and 4.5 hours to get back, so all together 9 hours! So I missed my first drum club lesson but we had to pick her up that day because we rescued her. Luna is crazy, a chewer, funny, a cutie pie and a tiny bit clever, I love her.

This weekend I had my first ever drum lesson and it was funny because the drum teacher was in and out of the room that I was in. He was in and out because the other boy learning drums was in the room next door. I played on a drum kit with 5 drums (1 base, 1 snare, 3 tom toms) and 5 cymbals, it was weird because I'm not used to a massive drum kit!

There are only 3 sleeps until the awards and I'm so excited!! I can't wait to meet other alopecia kids.
My alopecia is growing back in some places and falling out in others. You can see in this picture where my hair is growing again

 And this one I've got some regrowth and some new patches! Alopecia is a funny old thing.

Erin Wolf

Today when I got back from school I saw that there was post for me and it was a WOLF HAT! The lady that made Steve my minion hat from my pen pal said she would make me a hat for free after she saw my blog. She said I could have anything I wanted in any colour. I chose a wolf because I like deadly stuff like werewolves and pretend to be a wolf with Freya.

When it was in the bag I thought it was a granny's wig because it was a bag with grey and black in it BUT i took it out and it was a wolf hat. I screamed and jumped up and down and hugged my mum and brother. My two first favourite hats are now Steve and my new Wolf hat!

I absolutely love it.

Also when I was getting ready for Mum to take photos we noticed I have one bald arm and one hairy arm, it's quite funny!

For amazing made to order hats speak to Tamzin @ Meopham's Little Minions

Exciting things

I’m really looking forward to going to the awards. I’m excited and a little bit shy. I hope there are lots of people there. I bet I make lots of friends and I’ll miss them when I go home. My mum bought me these silver sparkly high heels for the awards I’ve put them on with my secret award dress and my mum said I look beautiful in them.

Another thing I can’t wait for is drum school! I start in 2 weeks. I’m excited and shy the same as the awards. I’m excited because I really want to learn how to play the drums. I play my drums most days in my bedroom. It’s hard to explain why I like playing the drums, I just really like playing them. I’m going to be a drummer.

When I said to Freya at school, I’ve got a bit of regrowth on my hair everyone gathered around me, they were all really pleased for me.

February is going to be a good month!

My Christmas

My Christmas

The nice thing about Christmas was that I didn’t think about my alopecia much because that’s when I get upset at school. Being at home with my family and having fun stops me thinking about it and I feel more confident.

Opening all my presents I was really happy to see what I got. My first favourite present that I got was my drum set. My second favourite was gross magic, my third one was booms bangs and fizzes and fourth is my inkoo.

My Drum Set!

Boxing Day

On Boxing Day, me, my mum, brother and my dad went to my nan’s house and all my Auntie’s were there, my uncle and my cousins. It was good playing with my cousins and not worrying about anything, relaxing watching Christmas movies and nan’s chocolate log was delicious!

My dog Rocco and his Christmas Pig

My Hair

Before I went back to school I asked mum to give me an update on my hair/patches because I can’t see them! (they're all underneath my hair at the back and some on top at the back of my head). When you have alopecia and it grows back it’s really hard to tell because it comes through very thin and white, Mum said almost see through. She thinks she can see signs of it growing a little bit, you can’t see it in a photo so I can’t show you yet.

Me & Mum