Lisa lops locks in big thank-you to cancer nurses

Lisa Woodhead, 45, who works at Chapel Allerton Hospital, shed her locks on Friday with her mother Joan, who is battling cancer herself, doing the deed.

Lisa was inspired to take the daring step of having her locks lopped as a way of saying thank-you to the Bexley Wing at St James’s Hospital for the care they have been giving her mother as she fights the disease for a third time.

Her fundraising efforts come as the YEP continues to promote the NHS and its amazing work through our We Love Our NHS campaign.

Lisa’s funds will be split between the Bexley Wing and St Gemma’s Hospice.

The specialist ward at St James’s also cared for her step-dad and Joan’s partner Stephen Bradley, 65, who eight years ago was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the oesophagus but fought off the disease after just one course of chemotherapy.

Joan, 62, of Potternewton Avenue, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer four years ago and had a hysterectomy, the cancer spread to her spleen and was treated with chemotherapy but now it is back again.

She said: “Stephen hasn’t half proved them wrong. He only had one lot of chemotherapy and had no more since. And when I have been having my treatment the staff have been fantastic.

“My two sisters come with me, Lisa or my other daughter and even though it is a sad place to go, the staff are marvellous and we have a laugh and it makes me feel better.

“They try to explain to me and get me to read about it, but I just tell them to get on with it.”

Joan said she was amazed when her daughter decided before Christmas she was going to have her head shaved but they set about fundraising and reached the £3,000 mark with a JustGiving page, donations from family and friends and Joan gathered £700 with sponsor forms.

She added: “When she told me what she was going to do I said ‘are you sure?’. I said she didn’t have to but she was insistent. It is absolutely brilliant what she has done and I want to say a big thank-you to her and the staff at Bexley.”