I am fundraising for Alopecia UK because my mum has alopecia Universalis. She had alopecia areata it since she was 12 years old. It would thin and go patchy and grow back again. When I was 9 years old she lost nearly all of her hair and she gave me the clippers one night and said to shave the rest off. It is a memory I will never forget. She then lost all of her hair. It gave me separation anxiety from my mum because I thought she was seriously ill. I wouldn’t be able to be away from her for a long period of time and wouldn’t be able to sleep in my own bed. Alopecia UK helped me so much when I was younger, me and my mum went on the Alton Towers trip with Alopecia UK as volunteers, I then realised that my mum wasn’t ill because there was so many other people just like her, and I learned a lot from the experience that I went on with her. I’m now 17 years old, and I’ve relised through what my mum has been through with losing her hair to alopecia is that you have to embrace who you are. I felt that now is the right time to raise money for alopecia uk to say thank you for what they have done for me without realising, and what they have done for my mum. And I want to show my mum and everyone who has alopecia that there are people out there who support them. Joey Barratt