Lismore is doing it tough. First the COVID pandemic, and then the devastating floods just over a year ago now, the effects of which are continuing to be felt throughout the community.

During these difficult times, people of Lismore and the Northern Rivers region have still been diagnosed with cancer, and have still needed chemotherapy. And the effects of chemotherapy have still existed, including hair loss.

Whilst people continue to receive treatment, Lismore Base Hospital’s wig library service has been temporarily closed due to volunteer shortages and hospital visitor restrictions. This has resulted in nurses from the cancer care and haematology unit taking time out of their already busy roles to help patients find a wig from their small and depleting wig library stock.

Similarly in Sydney, since the COVID pandemic struck in 2020, Arrow’s wig library has ceased operation and been functioning in a different capacity since. As life has slowly begun to return to normal, we have looked ahead to our future plans for our long running wig service and talked with other local wig libraries.

In those conversations we heard of the need for wigs for patients from Lismore. We reached out to the Cancer Care team from Lismore Base Hospital to ask if we could help, and the answer was a resounding yes! They let us know that they could definitely do with some new wigs, particularly some shoulder length styles that their beautiful young ladies are looking for, to help replace some of their older pieces.

So we gathered together nearly 80 of our new wigs of all styles and colours and delivered them to Lismore Base Hospital to help get their wig library back up and running and help cancer patients of Lismore. The new wigs were most gratefully received, with Cancer Nurse Unit Manager Nick Allen saying there was a ‘huge need’ for the wigs and that their community of patients would be thrilled with the new stock.

As Lismore works to rebuild, we look forward to the hospital’s wig library re-opening with the kickstart of a number of stylish new wigs donated by Arrow. We hope this will be of some help to a community that has already been impacted by so much devastation.

We would also like to thank our wig library sponsor Tour de Cure who have loyally supported our wig library over many years. Without their financial support this donation would not have been possible.