IIIIII'm Baaaack

I cant believe how long it's been since I've done a post. Sooooooooooo much has happened! We've moved house (to Somerset), I've started secondary school, made lots of new friends and my hair grew back... then fell out again. Twice. 😤

We sold our house but I still had school so we had to live with my Nan. At school, every year at the end, the year sixes have a reward ceremony and guess what? I got the Academic Achievement award!YAY! 😝

We moved on Saturday 4th August, it was a long, long, everlasting journey. On the first night we didn't have any of our stuff, which was a little annoying but we managed to go through it. We moved into a beautiful thatched cottage 30 minutes from the beach! 😎

Before we moved I had an induction day at my new secondary school that I really enjoyed and mum and I thought that it was the one. So we chose it and I went to the summer school, which was obviously in the summer holidays. That was really fun, we wrote fantasy stories, went bowling, did art and much more. I've joined Primary Pals, am an Anti Bully Ambassador, on the Festival Committee, helping the community... basically everything! I also was part of the school production, Into The Wood, I was only in the chorus/dance because I'm a year 7. I'm loving it. 😊

The most amazing thing happened! I have a baby sister (Mila) and she's just turned 2. She's so cute and doesn't stop talking! I could just kiss her all over! 😘

I'm going to try to be more active on the blog and post lots more because of how much has happened. Thanks you guys for helping me get through my first years of 'Me And My Alopecia'.💘

Alopecia AWARENESS Month!!

Erin's story of her head shave made it into our local news!! fantastic piece of Alopecia Awareness just ahead of September Alopecia Awareness Month!

You can read the full article HERE

Then after this, we were called by ITV Anglia News and asked if they could come and film Erin and chat to her about her alopecia, her head shave and also this blog!! Erin and I were both super nervous but really pleased with the final piece that aired on TV:

You can read their report and watch the video HERE

Erin's fundraising has shot up now to £910!!! If you can help us break the £1000 barrier for Alopecia UK that would be amazing!

CLICK TO DONATE

BeBold Alopecia Kids Camp

5 Favourite things about BeBold Alopecia Camp for Kids

THE THEME: It was an Indian & cowboy theme. It makes it even more fun with the guns and bows & arrows I ran through the forrest shooting indians (I was a cowgirl).

THE TALENT SHOW: seeing all the other kids sing, dance etc, with confidence with their alopecia, it made me want to do it next year. PS I'm going to be playing the drums.

MARSHMALLOWS AROUND THE CAMP FIRE: there was loads of different sized marshmallows (huge, small etc) plus I love cooking and eating them.

MAKING FRIENDS: I made new friends and also met old friends. It's excellent to be around other kids with alopecia because I know I'm not alone.

SAMSAM BUBBLE MAN: there's this bubble man who also has alopecia. With 9 world records, 3 blue peter badges! He's made a bubble so big 50 people could fit in it! And made a bubble with 56 bubbles inside!
                                   

me blowing a bubble with my hands

                                       

I CAN'T WAIT TO GO NEXT YEAR! :) :D

Hair loss & Wigs

After my bath one night Mum noticed more hair than usual stuck to my shoulders and arms. She had a look at my hair and found more bald patches. They were at the sides and at the top, I was upset because it's spreading and going to more places (not just the back!). One of my eyebrows is getting really thin too.

these were taken at the beginning of March they are bigger now

Mum talked to me about it and about that maybe if more falls out we might have to get a wig. She said I didn't have to wear one, I might like to just cut it all off. She showed me photos of girls with shaved heads and we looked at wigs on the internet.

I actually got excited looking at the wigs! We also visited a friend called Amy with alopecia, she wears wigs all the time except at home. I got to look at her wigs and try them on. Amy gave me a wig she doesn't wear to have a play with at home and get used to having a wig around. I was really surprised that she was wearing wigs because you couldn't even tell!!

The wig Amy gave me

Since this I've also had to stop eating CHOCOLATE! it has been making me sick, the doctor says I have a periodic syndrome called cyclical vomiting. I was gutted as it's so close to Easter. Mum bought me a purple wig to cheer me up. I LOVE IT!!! It's my rock-chick-chicky-rock wig for at home. Purple is my favourite colour and I've said right since I had alopecia I wanted a purple wig!!

If all my hair does fall out, I will get a proper human hair wig but wear my purple one for parties and whenever (except at school!).

So even though I am scared about maybe being bald, I am excited about how much fun and how many hairstyles I'll be able to have with wigs.

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

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

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.

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 Happy Book

Sometimes when I go to school I feel sad, that’s why I thought of doing a happy book so when I open it and I’m crying I just open it and look at it and I’ve got happy pictures in there.

Donut Erin - Southend-on-sea

I went to the shop and bought a photo book and today I chose 46 pictures because they are funny and they will make me happy. They are pictures of me, my mum, my dad my dog and my brother and some friends.

When we were going through the photos I felt really happy because there were loads of photos of us going on holiday and going around a friend's house, on dog walks and some of them are even from my blog.

Here’s a slideshow of the pictures feel free to watch it.