Jayne D'Entremont of Barriere recently went from having lots of hair to none to show solidarity for her sister who is battling breast cancer.
Her sister, Candace Piccin, lives in Pincher Creek, Alta. with her husband and two children and was diagnosed at the end of December 2024.
“She started treatments in January - she goes to Lethbridge,” D’Entremont said, adding the treatments are going well. “She’s responded fantastic to treatments.”
When Piccin began losing her hair because of chemotherapy, D’Entremont made the decision to shave her head.
Her hair was long, curly and thick so she will be donating it to Wigs for Kids, a non-profit organization that provides wigs with human hair to children with hair loss due to chemotherapy and radiation treatments, alopecia, trichotillomania, burns and other medical reasons.
D'Entremont also solicited donations for the Canadian Cancer Society and was able to raise $3,000.
“This town is amazing and unbelievably generous” she said, explaining she started online through the Canadian Cancer Society raised $1,030 but also had people make in-person donations.
On Monday, May 5, the day she had her head shaved, she shared it live on Facebook and said a friend, who is the local mobile vet, shaved his head and donated some cash as well.
D’Entremont said her sister had gone for a mammogram a year earlier and found a lump herself.
“She decided she’d better go in and talk to her doctor. They sent her for another mammogram. Then they said, ‘it’s not one tumour, it’s two.’”
After further testing and determining it was the type of cancer that spreads, they opted to do the chemotherapy first.
“She gets a treatment every three weeks and her last treatment will be on May 16 and then she’ll have surgery on the 16th of June,” D’Entremont said. “The original tumour is 75 per cent smaller than when she started chemo and the second tumour is gone completely.”
Piccin will still have surgery and radiation because it is an aggressive form a cancer and they are not taking any chances.
The sisters grew up in Barriere and their mom went to high school in the community as well.
D’Entremont works at the local feed store in Barriere and is a farmer, raising cows, sheep and goats. Their mom is a tutor so D'Entremont said she used all those connections to raise funds.
“People really rose to the occasion,” she said. “I’m so thankful to everyone. There are a few other people in Barriere who have also been diagnosed.”
Eyeing the future, she plans to organize something around the Terry Fox Run in 2025 and continue to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society.
