By NICOLE VALICEK
LAUREN McCarty is like any other 21-year-old girl but there is no mistaking she is special.
She likes to spend time with her friends, in nature and being outdoors and at her 21st birthday party she shaved her head.
In 2011 Lauren faced the tragedy of losing her lifelong best friend and cousin Jayde, 22, to Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare disease in which cancer cells are found in the bone and or in soft tissue.
After Jayde’s death, Lauren vowed to do something to try and stop cancer from taking other people’s loved ones.
On 23 May, Lauren celebrated the life of her cousin who she adored, and her 21st birthday.
Surrounded by close friends and family Lauren shaved her head to show the world she’s planning on “kicking cancer in the butt”.
“I did it so there’s money going toward research and I would never want someone else to have to experience what I have loosing someone. That’s why I did it.”
One by one each of her closest friends and family members shaved a piece of Lauren’s head, as if binding them together in the selfless act.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without other peoples help,” she said.
Lauren aimed to raise $5000 to donate to the cancer charity Sock it to Sarcoma, but happily exceeded this limit and raised $8500 for the cause.
Lauren said Jayde was a big influence in her life and that even when she was undergoing treatment and enduring multiple different types of therapies in an attempt to slow the cancer down, she always kept a smile on her face.
“Jayde would love the fact that I’m shaving my head … she could always convince me to do the craziest things. So for her, I’m going to be crazy and brave and be everything she was … including bald”.
She described the experience as surreal, but that it was only hair and she looks forward to it growing back so she can do it all again.
“It was really emotional, honestly the most inspiring thing I’ve ever seen,” close friend Zoe Davies added.
It’s not too late to donate by visiting Lauren’s website https://give.everydayhero.com/au/lauren-mccarty.
