I am trying to raise awareness and money for Alopecia UK because they have helped me alot so I want to help them so they can keep helping more people with alopecia.

I asked my head teacher if we could do a wear blue for Alopecia dress down day at my school to try and raise awareness of alopecia and money for Alopecia UK and she said yes. There is going to be an assembly about alopecia, a raffle and a colouring in competition on the dress down day.

I was only 5 when I got my first bald patch at the back of my head. I don't remember going to the doctors but my mum said they done some tests to try and find out why but couldn't find a reason and told my mum I have alopecia areata. Alopecia areata is patchy hairloss and there isn't a cure so people just need to live with it. My hair fell out for 2 years until I was 7 and I went to look at wigs because my hair was getting bad but we ended up not getting one because the lady wanted me to cut the hair I did have left for the wig to fit better and I didn't want to do that. My hair started to grow back in white at the back and kept growing for 2 years and it went back brown and I had all my hair back.

My mum found the Alopecia UK charity who had online support for her to talk to other parents with children with alopecia which helped her. The charity sent me a children books book about alopecia and an alopecia barbie. I can remember taking these into school for show and tell to tell my class about my hair.

Last year when I was 9 my hair started to fall back out again and it made me really upset so I wore bandanas to cover it up because I didn't want people to see it or to talk about it. My mum went back on to the Alopecia UK charity and signed me for some zoom calls with other kids with alopecia and this helped me to start talking about my alopecia and not to be so upset about it. One of the zoom calls was with Matt Lucas and I even got his autograph! This summer we went on a holiday with Alopecia UK and it was good to meet the other children with alopecia. It made me feel better about my alopecia seeing lots of other people who are like me.

Alopecia UK is a small charity working to improve the lives affected by alopecia and has aims around Support, Awareness and Research. It relies on the support of fundraisers and donors to continue the work it does. Thank you for supporting me with my fundraising efforts. I really appreciate your support and so does Alopecia UK! Sophie Dickson