Kayla, 10, and Sophia, 7, wanted to make sure their mom felt supported after she shaved her head due to breast cancer so they took the plunge with her to cut theirs too.
Two daughters showed it’s not just a mother’s love that knows no bounds.
Kayla, 10, and Sophia, 7, wanted to make sure their mom felt supported after she shaved her head due to breast cancer so they took the plunge to cut theirs too.
“Well they had been planning it for a couple weeks before they actually came to me and told me that they wanted to shave their heads and that their father had already approved,” Joanna McPherson, the girl’s mother, told InsideEdition.com. “I was shocked, a little surprised.”
McPherson was initially diagnosed with ductal carcinoma and had a double mastectomy, but in October she received a second diagnosis of HER2-positive breast cancer. She now has to undergo chemotherapy for six months, as well as a yearlong antibody therapy with treatments scheduled every three weeks.
When McPherson started losing her hair in December, she decided to shave it altogether to make things easier on herself. “I started realizing that it was very messy and it felt like I was out of control. I couldn’t even cook, or kind of do everyday things without hair just kind of falling down,” the mom said. “I decided that I was going to shave my head and kind of take control of it a little bit.”
Weeks after she cut hers, Kayla and Sophia let her know they wanted to cut theirs too. The girls had each been thinking about it separately before they shared the idea with each other and then their dad.
“I thought, 'Well, they probably don’t really know what they’re asking and after a few days it will kind of blow over and they won’t really want to follow through with it,'” McPherson said.
Bu the girls did follow through.
In videotaped moments, the girls’ dad, Shawn McPherson, shaved their heads one by one inside their Shreveport, Louisiana, home.
“It’s very difficult to see a loved one go through pain and just a lot of body changes that they can’t control,” McPherson said. “This was one way they could not only share that with me, but maybe manage some of what they were experiencing themselves.”
Sophia said she wasn’t thinking about the aftermath and her gesture of support was all for her mom. Kayla added that she wasn’t concerned about bullying because her school does a good job of monitoring that.
“It was really just a gesture of love ... and even though they’re young and it seems like a big decision for a young kid to make, it was out of love,” McPherson said.
Kayla said it was the least they could do for their mom after all she does for them.
“She’s been in pain, but she’s done her best to still get up and take care of us,” Kayla said.
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