In 2018, while she was undergoing chemotherapy after breast cancer surgery, fashion designer Helen Cody sat down with us to talk about her treatment and learning to feel good on the inside and out. On this breast cancer awareness month, we republish the piece from our archives.
Soon after, my partner of five years, Rory, proposed out of the blue on Sandymount beach and swept me along in the most romantic way, which cleverly took my mind off everything. We got married three weeks later on March 20, eight days before I was to have surgery. I guess it was my vanity, but I wanted to have my hair for our wedding day, even if it meant I spent my honeymoon in St Vincent’s Hospital.
Thankfully, cold caps, which weren’t available to my sister five years ago, are here now. They’re worn during chemotherapy and freeze your scalp to reduce the amount of drugs reaching the follicles, but it wasn’t very effective for me because I had such thick hair. Ironically, it works better on women with thin or fine hair. On day 17 of my first round of chemo, I lost 70% of my hair. It was a frightening experience and left me shocked. But then, I thought, “Ok, I still have hair.