When Deborah Butchell, a 51-year-old mom, received the news that her 16-year-old daughter Marie had shaved her head, she was compelled to take action.
“The moment I saw her head, I knew what I had to do: I had to get cancer,” says Butchell.
“Marie had been at her father’s for the weekend,” Butchell recalls about the night that would forever change her life and temporarily change her hair. Elmer, Butchell’s ex-husband and father of Marie, informed Deborah that he’d come home to find Marie in the master bathroom, buzzing off the last of her curly red locks.
“We both knew she was a rebellious teenager,” says Butchell, adding that neither she nor Elmer had taken it seriously, despite a recent lip piercing.
“Her lips weren’t big anyway,” Butchell says of the lip piercing. “But this? No mother should ever have to get this kind of news about her daughter.”
Butchell felt that the only way to save her daughter was by sacrificing herself.
“I had to show her what it really means for a woman to be bald.”
After ten years of not smoking, Butchell picked up the habit again and has gotten herself up to four packs a day. Her kitchen has been cleared of all natural foods and restocked with preservative-packed items. A typical meal consists of microwaveable mac & cheese, Top Ramen, and Tostitos. Another favorite hangout of Butchell’s is the tanning salon, which she now frequents daily, after a dip in the X-ray machine she keeps in her bedroom.
“Certain things I thought I would never do, I am now doing for the sake of my daughter.”
“Now, my doctor says I may have pre-cancerous growths and should get them checked, but I plan on letting them blossom to show my daughter just how much I care,” says Butchell. “So I’m well on my way to cancer.”
“Marie was a drop-dead gorgeous redhead,” Butchell says. “And now I’d rather drop dead than look at what she’s done to her hair.”
Marie, who is now apparently living with Elmer full-time, released the following statement: “Just ignore her. She only wants attention.”
