A cut above the rest

Meghan McCormick

For 12-year-old Timothy Blackford, losing a little bit of hair is no big deal, especially if it means showing support for a good friend who is fighting for his life.

Blackford's friend Michael Hudson, 15, was diagnosed Feb. 13 with acute myelogenous leukemia.

According to the American Cancer Society, AML is a form of cancer that originates in the bone marrow and can progress into the blood. The disease begins in cells that would become blood cells. If untreated, the disease could spread and can be fatal.

Blackford and the rest of the Trinity Baptist Church youth group didn't want Hudson to feel alone when he began to lose his hair as a side affect of chemotherapy treatments.

The team met up as usual Wednesday evening, but haircuts substituted for songs and worship. In a small amount of time, the upstairs youth room was turned into a barbershop, and 20 boys and adult men lined up for buzz cuts.

"He wouldn't have any hair and I decided to do it for him," Blackford said.

After the haircut was finished, Blackford's friends gathered around him, taking turns feeling his bare head.

Trinity youth volunteers Jason Colvin and Adam Wilmoth came up with the hair cutting idea and presented it to the rest of the group.

"I had heard of others doing it," Colvin said. "I wanted to do something to show support of Michael."

He said a bald head is a small gesture of encouragement.

"We wanted to show love and support and teach our guys how to demonstrate God's love for us," Colvin said.

Wilmoth said they videotaped Wednesday's event so they could show Hudson how much he is loved by the church congregation.

"Hopefully this will be encouraging to Michael," Wilmoth said.

Holly Morris, a family friend of Hudson's, said the teenager lives in Ardmore but spent some of his childhood in Norman. He visits his friends at Trinity Baptist when time allows.

Morris said the illness was discovered at a recent doctor's visit when Hudson sought treatment for what he believed was a staph infection. Physicians ordered a round of blood work to rule out infection. When the test results came back, Hudson and his family were surprised to learn the diagnosis was leukemia.

She said Hudson has been admitted into Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City, and will undergo five rounds of chemotherapy treatments in the next six months.

"The prognosis is really good that he will be in remission," Morris said.

In a phone interview Thursday afternoon, Hudson said he had learned earlier in the day about the sacrifice his friends made to make it feel at ease about losing hair.

"I felt pretty good," Hudson said. "It's encouraging to know so many people went to the extreme to support me."

Hudson said because of the illness and course of treatment, he won't be able to leave the hospital for a while. However, the Trinity youth team plans to make trips to the Oklahoma City hospital when possible.

The patient said he knew there was a group of friends in Norman willing to do what they could to encourage him, but he admitted be was caught off-guard with the shaved heads.

"It was surprising, but it just shows that they care and they're supportive," he said.

As Zack Blackford, 16, waited in line Wednesday night for his turn, he said he was surprised to learn about Hudson's illness.

"I was shocked," he said. "You don't really think it could happen to someone that age until it does."

He said a bald head is a little price to pay to help out a friend.

"It's just hair. It will grow back," Blackford said.

Meghan McCormick 366-3539 mmccormick@normantranscript.com