ARLINGTON (WFAA) - After spending just a few minutes with Linda Bergner, it is pretty obvious what she loves most. Stories and memories pour out as she looks at the walls adorned with pictures of her children and grandchildren.
“I am so proud of them. They love me so much and I love them.”
But even overflowing with the love only a mother could know, Linda did not attend her son’s wedding last year. Any stories or memories are left to pictures, videos, and her imagination.
“I dreamt what dress I was wearing,” said Linda while looking at pictures of the bride and groom. “I had to miss the wedding because of cancer.”
Linda was in a hospital unable to attend the ceremony last year. It was just one of many things cancer has taken from her. She lost her mother to cancer and for the last six years, she has been battling it herself.
And like many patients, the chemotherapy treatments have taken the full head of blonde hair she has in many of those same pictures on the wall. If nothing else, she just wished she could look like herself.
“I just wanted to look normal.”
Finding the right wig can be a difficult task. Many are expensive, itchy, and are often easily identifiable because of how it sits on a particular person’s head. Natasha Verma found an easier solution.
“I got a synthetic wig and I hated it. The hairline looked so fake so I would just put a baseball cap on it.”
At just 23-years-old, Natasha went to the doctor last year thinking a muscle strain was causing the pain in her left arm. She left diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Not long after her first chemo treatment, she began to lose her hair.
“I combed my hair and to my shock and horror, it was coming out,” she said. “Cancer was already taking away my quality of life.”
But Natasha’s seemingly simple solution has turned into an idea that has given back at least a very small part of what cancer has taken. Through her family’s nonprofit, the Verma Foundation has designed baseball caps with real hair wigs attached. There is also a soft liner on the inside to keep from irritating the sensitive scalp following chemotherapy.
It may be just a tiny victory over cancer, but it is more than just the hair. Being able to look like you did before lets a person devote all their emotional energy towards fighting the disease rather than spending it on how they look.
“It is so seamless. You put it on and you feel glamorous,” said Natasha. “You do not have to feel like someone is looking at you weird.”
Linda is one of nearly 250 cancer patients across the country to receive free cap wigs from the Verma Foundation. On the foundation’s website, cap wigs of all different colors and styles can also be purchased by anyone with all proceeds devoted to cancer patients.
“I have tried everything and this is perfect,” said Linda about her cream colored cap with light brown hair. “I wanted to look as normal as I could and I feel beautiful.”
The Dallas Cowboys are one of two NFL teams, along with the New England Patriots, to donate team caps for the foundation to use for the wigs.