After being diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma earlier this year 15-year-old Katie-Lily Bryant started a blog to record her journey. In just a couple of months the courageous teenager has gone from obsessing over losing her long hair to completely embracing her baldness.
Katie-Lily posted a picture of her bald head on her blog and wrote: “this is my bald head. I am now completely bald. this is me. and you know what I’m proud! just because I have no hair doesn’t mean I am not Katie anymore. I am! Yes there will be days where I would DIE to have my hair back but the point is not having hair is keeping me alive. The drugs will poison my body but what is important is its destroying the cancer and if that means I have to be bald for a bit I will!” (sic)
Katie-Lily, who also posted a picture from her first chemotherapy treatment on July 1, says her cancer battle has given her a new sense of perspective and taught her to appreciate the small things in life.
“I feel guilty for all the times I’ve complained about my life and the little things that go wrong when I now see the bigger picture,” she wrote. “Now fighting for my life I realise I need to not get frustrated at the little things in life. Life is the most precious gift God could ever give someone. So try not to waste it moaning and ranting about when the packet of six cookies only came with five. Basically to all of you sometimes you have to realise what we take for granted every minute of the day. Sometimes we need to just sit down and appreciate everything we have got. As you never know when something unexpected can change your life forever.”
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Photo credit: Katie-Lily Bryant
GCSE student Katie-Lily, who is due to begin her second round of chemotherapy in August, has revealed that she actually quite enjoys her hospital stays, writing on her blog: “I saw all the children and teens today smiling at me and I just can’t wait to make friends with them. Bring my make-up and do makeovers with them and have lots of fun! You have to get the positive out of everything.”
The beauty-mad teen has tried out a range of long wigs to disguise her hair loss but has also been making the most of her baldness by giving it a tan. Her step-dad Paul bought her a spray-tanning machine and Katie-Lily is delighted with the result.
“Bald or not bald I’m still me,” she writes. “And I’m proud of my bald head.”
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Photo credit: Katie-Lily Bryant
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