In a cosy sitting room in Walmer Heights, two elderly sisters sat surrounded by friends and neighbours as scissors snipped away decades of carefully grown hair.
However, this wasn’t just any haircut – it was an act of love born from profound loss and an unshakeable determination to turn grief into hope.
Jennifer Strong (77) and Polly van Niekerk (74) have watched cancer steal too much from their lives: A beloved baby brother, a cherished friend and even their four-legged family member. But rather than retreat into sorrow, the sisters chose to fight back – one strand of hair at a time.
“We knew we wanted to do something meaningful,” says Jennifer.
On Thursday, 23 October, the sisters opened their home for a fundraiser, inviting friends and neighbours to witness their hair donation to the Cancer Association of South Africa (Cansa) – an organisation working tirelessly against a disease that claims more than 100,000 South African lives each year.
Whilst the audience looked on, the four-legged guests seemed happy that it was the humans receiving a trim and not the pooches.
For Jennifer, this haircut represented the end of an era spanning over six decades. Her relationship with hairdressers had been virtually non-existent since childhood, when her mother would march her off to the barber for practical “English schoolboy” cuts.
“I had such thin, mousy hair as a child,” she remembers with a gentle laugh. “My sister Polly had these gorgeous long blonde locks, and there I was, looking like a boy because it was easier for swimming. Every time my hair touched my ears, off to the barber I’d go.”
The tradition continued through her school years until matric, when a school dance finally convinced her to let her hair grow. “I couldn’t go to the matric dance looking like a boy,” she smiles, the memory bringing warmth to her eyes.
Since then, only her daughter – a professional hairdresser – had touched her hair. “She always needed a victim to practise on,” Jennifer chuckles. “I was her willing subject through perms, trims and that dreadful frizzy afro phase.”
For Polly, a retired teacher who had visited a salon only twice in her life, the decision was equally momentous. Her long hair had been her signature, but love proved stronger than vanity.
The sisters’ motivation runs deeper than charitable goodwill – it flows from wells of personal anguish.
“Our baby brother was only 69,” Jennifer says. “When the doctors said it was liver cancer and that it was aggressive.”
The speed of his decline shocked them all. “I kept thinking that if I visited him, he might give up hope. So I stayed away, believing somehow that would keep him fighting longer.” Her voice grows quiet. “His three daughters managed to fly out from the UK to see him on the Friday. He passed away on Saturday.”
The grief was still raw when cancer struck again, this time targeting a dear family friend – the mother of Polly’s daughter-in-law. “She was so young, only in her early sixties. It happened so quickly, so unexpectedly. One day she was there and then… she wasn’t.”
Even their beloved pet couldn’t escape cancer’s cruel reach.
The final blow came when Jennifer’s son-in-law, a vibrant 42-year-old cyclist in peak physical condition, received his own devastating diagnosis. “He’s the healthiest person you could imagine – always cycling, eating well, full of life.”
Thankfully, he’s now in remission, a glimmer of hope.
Rather than be consumed by their losses, the sisters channelled their pain into purpose. The hair donation was just one part of their mission – they also organised a fundraiser for Save-A-Pet, ensuring that even four-legged family members fighting cancer wouldn’t be forgotten.
“We wanted to do something, even if it seems small,” Polly explains. “If our hair can help make wigs for cancer patients who’ve lost theirs, if our fundraising can help save animals.”
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