Nilima.
Location: London, UK
Cancer type: Stage 2 Breast Cancer
Drug type: EC, Taxol
Hair type: Thin, Medium Length
"I’m very happy with my experience and it truly helped with my confidence no end. "
Nilima, a lawyer based in London, UK was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in 2020. Her hospital told her about scalp cooling with Paxman and she decided to give it a try. Nilima tells her story below about how she tried to save her hair during chemotherapy treatment.
Scalp cooling was not as painful as everyone made it out to be. I’d always make sure I had a call scheduled with a friend for the first 10 minutes, I definitely think the distraction helped.
I think it’s really important that everyone learns to understand their own pain threshold; try not to listen to what everyone else says about the potential pain, try it for yourself and then make your own decision as to whether you can tolerate it. Don’t get scared about what someone else has said, as a result you might end up not trying it at all.
During treatment
Post final chemo
After scalp cooling, my hair had thinned slightly, however I never felt the need to wear a wig, or head covering because of it.
To keep my hair as manageable as possible, I applied caster oil twice a week. Scalp cooling gave me the opportunity to keep my hair during this process, I’m very happy with my experience and it truly helped with my confidence no end.
"I’d like to thank everyone who was in my support network, each person played a unique and vital role. I can’t simply thank one person, everyone was a team."