Happy New Year! 2022 was a busy year for Alopecia UK and I am very proud of all we achieved in the last twelve months. The highlights for me were:

• Our return to Alton Towers in April, with over 330 of us filling the theme park with our sea of blue!
• Our publication of the Charter for Best Practice for NHS Wig Provision in June
• My first attendance at the Kingswood Activity Centre for our residential event for children affected by alopecia
• Funding three new research projects rather than the usual two, taking our investment in alopecia research projects to over £218,000.

These are just a small number of highlights in a year full of activity around our aims of Support, Awareness and Research. For a more detailed recap of 2022, please read our round-up here.

It is amazing what we have achieved given our modest size. We are a small charity, but I believe we continually punch above our weight!

I want to take this opportunity to extend a personal thank you to everyone who has volunteered, raised funds, and/or made donations in 2022. We simply could not continue our work without the support of the alopecia community, a community that I am so proud to be a part of.

I am sure that 2023 will be another eventful year for our team (although we are all hoping for a less eventful Oscars ceremony!). I am so excited for our Big Weekend event in Birmingham (3^rd-5^th March). I have only attended one Big Weekend event, in 2017 (prior to joining the charity team), and I loved every minute. I came away feeling inspired, educated and empowered. I hope our attendees this year will get those same feelings. Ticket sales are closing soon so if you want to join us in Birmingham, don’t leave it until it’s too late!

With NICE expected to publish their advice on JAK inhibitor drugs for the treatment of alopecia areata in 2023, I will be busy representing the patient voice at meetings and advocating for new treatment options to be made available to those who need them. Alopecia UK will also be supporting the European Hair Research Society’s meeting in Sheffield in June. There is lots of valuable work for us to do.

It brings me to an ask as I look ahead to another year of Alopecia UK working to improve the lives of those affected by alopecia. I am asking you to ask if you believe in the work we do. Do you believe that those with alopecia deserve a charity working on their behalf? Do you believe people with alopecia benefit from peer support?  Do you believe that raising awareness of alopecia with healthcare professionals is important? Do you want more researchers to seek treatments and more patients to have access to trials?   If yes, we are asking you, if you can afford to, to make a regular gift to Alopecia UK by giving a monthly donation in 2023.  

Monthly gifts can provide the charity with a regular income that can help us to do as much as we can to make a real difference in the lives of those with alopecia.

Whether you can afford to give £2 a month, £20 a month, or anywhere in-between, we would appreciate your support to help us to continue to be there for those who are struggling. To enable us to make the public and medical professionals understand the psychological impact of hair loss. To allow us to invest in further research projects which will hopefully lead to improved treatment options.

Please set-up your regular gift today

Thank you. Wishing you a happy and healthy 2023!