Two Scottish award-winning milliners are holding Scotland’s first ever Hat Walk to raise money to help find a cure for brain tumours.
Leanne Cairns (above left), from Leanne Cairns Millinery in Kilmarnock, and Lisa Jones (above right), from Off With Her Head Millinery in Fife, are organising the free event where everyone must wear a hat at Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline this Sunday (7th April), in collaboration with World Hat Walk which is held in 14 locations globally, including London Hat Walk.
The pair were inspired to do “something positive” after the 14-year-old daughter of one of Leanne’s close friends, Clare Cornyn, was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Leanne, 47, said: “When Clare’s daughter Emma was 10, she started getting headaches and became tired all the time. She then became forgetful; after a bout of double vision, she went to the opticians where they could see she had a brain tumour, a craniopharyngioma, around her pituitary gland. Emma is like a niece to me so it was an incredibly anxious time.”
More than 1,000 people in Scotland are diagnosed with a brain tumour every year, and around 400 people in the country die from high-grade brain tumours annually.
Since her diagnosis, Emma has undergone five procedures to try and deflate the tumour, and to drain excess fluid, and she now takes daily medication to replace hormones due to suffering deficiencies.
Leanne said: “Overall Emma is a witty, humorous and intelligent girl who has an active, full and normal life but the tumour takes constant care to maintain. At some point, it will require further treatment but it’s such a rare disorder that there are no answers, which is why research is so vital. More needs to be done to help find a cure.”
To donate to Brain Tumour Research via the Scotland Hat Walk, visit: justgiving.com/page/scotlandhatwalk
To sign up for the walk, visit: eventbrite.co.uk/e/scotland-hat-walk-tickets-864098962257
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