This man grew his hair for 2 years after his mom got cancer for this heartwarming reason

The word to describe this story is quite simple: it's moving. However, the story begins with very bad news: Melanie Shaha, an American mother of six, learns that she has cancer, a major brain tumor. The year is 2003. Despite several surgeries, the tumor reappeared in 2006, and then in 2017.

Discover our latest podcast

Melanie's doctors told her she would not lose her hair during her radiation therapy sessions, but her hair soon fell out in chunks. As she increasingly struggled with her appearance, Melanie received a heartwarming gift from her son, Matt.

Melanie's son made a beautiful gesture

Soon after her first diagnosis, Melanie entered the radiation therapy phase, a treatment that often causes patients' hair to fall out. Despite what her doctor said, this happened to Melanie, as she started to lose big chunks of hair in the few weeks following her first radiation therapy sessions. Her hair has never grown back, even once she was done with her treatment. She told Today how it became increasingly difficult to love herself and to stand her reflection in the mirror.

I don't mind being sick but I mind looking sick. I'd rather blend in and not stand out at the store.

Fortunately, Melanie could count on her son, Matt to help her through this difficult period.

A year ago I started working with one of the most generous humans I’ve ever known, Matt Shaha. One of the first...
Posted by Mercedes Berg on Thursday, July 21, 2022

Indeed, Melanie's son Matt simply decided to grow his hair for a while, despite his mother's reluctance. He insisted so much that his mother finally accepted his gesture, and he grew his hair for two and a half years.

'He has sacrificed so much'

As you can see, he had the idea of donating his long hair to his mother all along. After two and a half years, Matt went to his mother's house with some colleagues and they all got to work cutting his long hair. Melanie told Today that they all started crying once they had started cutting his hair, as it was the end of something, but also the beginning of something great for her.

We were super pumped and when they started cutting, we bawled.

Then, Matt sent his hair to a wig-making company in California, called Compassionate Creations. There, the hair was cleaned, sorted, and then hand-sewn. Everything was custom-made, for about 2000 dollars, which Matt paid for entirely, as a gift to his mum.

This touching story was documented by Mercedes Berg, a photographer who posted the pictures of this adventure on Facebook, where the likes, comments and shares were numerous. Melanie told Todayshe is very happy with her new hair!