Madonna Coffman

I think that a hero is a person that truly changes a person’s life. In the case of Madonna Coffman, she changed thousands of lives with Locks of Love. She displays many of the characteristics that we talked about in class; she is passionate about what she does because, in her 20's, Mrs. Coffman developed Alopecia from a vaccination.

Since its start, Locks of Love has had over 2,000 recipients in all 50 states and Canada. The charity is centered on kids, and only gives wigs to young people 18 and under.

Alopecia is a disease where your immune system becomes confused and attacks your hair follicles. Then your hair follicles die and your hair does not grow. Ten percent of people do not grow their hair back. Locks of Love caters to children with Alopecia.

Locks of Love also gives wigs to cancer patients. Patients with cancer sometimes go through chemotherapy to treat their disease. The chemo attacks and destroys the cancer cells. However, the chemo also attacks other cells, including the hair follicles. The wigs are provided to the children and adults going through this process.

Locks of Love receives all of the hair it uses from donations from people around the country. Volunteers, or hair donors, go to a participating hair salon and put their hair into a braid or ponytail, have it cut off and then send it to Locks of Love.

This charity was born when Madonna’s four-year old daughter developed Alopecia. She said that going through her daughter’s hair loss was much harder than her own experience. At that point she dropped all other charity work she was doing and started Locks of Love. In the beginning, the charity was associated with a for-profit wigmaker, but they broke off and became a completely non-profit company. The company now has a total of six paid workers.

I think that Mrs. Coffman is truly a hero, because of all the lives she has touched.