Jedburgh mum puts behind her the memory of a yob attack when she was a teenage girl

Lauren Scott has lost grandparents to cancer, two aunts have survived the disease and she also saw a close friend succumb to it.

The mum-of-one’s hair has always been precious to her and that made the decision to have it shaved off to bolster Macmillan Cancer Support a difficult one.

But Lauren also has a traumatic memory from her past which made the choice to ‘go bald’ even more heroic.

As a 15-year-old schoolgirl she suffered major hair loss for months after a yob – who ended up spending only a couple of days in jail – slapped hair removal cream on her head during an unprovoked attack.

Lauren, 34, recalled: “It was an incident that caused me a lot of trauma. I was 15 and at the bus station in Jedburgh with my friends when a nasty guy put hair removal cream on my head and I lost lots of my hair and had massive bald patches on my scalp.

"It wasn’t very nice and my hair is quite precious to me having gone through that. It took a long time to grow back because all of my scalp was burned. I didn’t realise that it was hair removal cream at first, I thought he had just come across to smack me on the head but once I got half way down the road my scalp started to really burn and my hair started to fall out in clumps and it was a good few months before I saw any growth.

"At first I was a bit nervous about having it shaved but it now feels really good and I’ve had so many compliments from people saying it suit it.”

Lauren’s five-year-old daughter Tilly and her niece Miya cut off her pigtails and then her sisters Rebecca and Zara shaved her scalp.

She said: “Cancer has affected me quite a lot over the years and I just thought it would be a nice thing just to raise some money. My two aunties survived cancer and I lost my granny and my papa and in 2014 I lost one of my best school friends to a brain tumour.”

Lauren’s funraising page is at https:bravetheshave.macmillan.org.uk/shavers/lauren-mundell-scott