My Story – by Charlotte’s Dad
Charlotte Olivier Adamson was born on the 30th May 2000 and from that moment – like all dads with their first born – she was ‘the apple of my eye’.
In 2001, just two weeks short of her first birthday, Charlotte was diagnosed with Celiac disease. This show itself through intolerance for gluten in food, but the condition can be treated by adherence to a strict diet. As long as the diet is followed, Char will never have any problem with it.
In February 2007, while brushing Char’s hair, my wife Rebecca noticed a small patch of baldness had appeared at the top of her crown.
We had no idea what might have caused this – and of course it raised a million questions, not only in our minds but in Char’s. One thought that Rebecca and I had was whether it might have been caused by stress, as we had just moved back to Australia after living in France and England, and Char was attending her fifth school in two years!
But visits to the doctor and a number of tests revealed the real cause – Char had Alopecia Areata.
I remember clearly the day we got the diagnosis.
I had taken time off from my job as an assistant coach of the Penrith Panthers NRL team to see her doctor. After getting the news, I had to return immediately to training.
You can imagine that my head was whirling after what I had heard, especially about treatments such as steroid injections, and of course about what could happen to Char in the following weeks.
This was minor compared to what Rebecca had to deal with as she drove home with our smart little 6 year old sitting in the back seat, asking a million questions. (You know the ones, don’t you?). Bec just could’t answer most of them, because we had’t had time to prepare for what had been presented to us.
Over the next three months, our little girl went completely bald.
In the meantime, Rebecca and I spent a lot of time researching the disease, especially on the Internet. There were pages and pages of information and pictures that left us confused, stressed and still searching for answers.
In 16 years playing professional Rugby league I had never taken a knock like this one.
I had to find a way to rise above all this confusion and heartache to be of help to Charlotte, and of course to Rebecca. I had to be the best most positive father that Charlotte could ask for – no, I had to be even better than that – because this would change her life forever.
As a father and mother, we believe this website will have a major impact on Charlotte’s life and we hope it has an impact on other Alopecia sufferers as well.
Our role, like that of the many other people forming this foundation, is to make alopecia sufferers lives smoother by raising awareness and understanding around the world. They are, after all just normal people with a condition.
Hopefully then our daughter can take her place in society with her head held high, a smile on her face and say: “Hi, I’m Charlotte – and I have Alopecia.”
Charlotte will always be Charlotte, hair or no hair.
Alopecia is just a part of who she is
Matthew Adamson
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