A salon owner with incurable cervical cancer who lost her hair while having chemotherapy has said wearing wigs has given her “reassurance in a world where nothing is certain”, and she now sells handmade, customisable bespoke wigs to help others feel “confident” in their own skin. Amanda Humphrey, 43, who owns Saramanda1 hair salon in Great Denham, Bedfordshire, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in October 2017 after delaying her smear test by seven years. She underwent a radical hysterectomy in December that year – a surgical procedure to remove the womb and surrounding tissues – and was in remission weeks later. The cancer returned and Humphrey received her second cervical cancer diagnosis just two days before Christmas in 2021, and she then started chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She described this as “hell on Earth”, and within two weeks of starting chemotherapy the second time, she noticed her hair was being “blown out of [her] head” by the wind. Humphrey shaved her head and embraced her baldness but soon realised she missed having “that comfort blanket” – and she then searched “high and low” for a realistic, non-synthetic wig. Through her own searches, which were often fruitless, she realised that the number of people selling customisable wigs made of human hair in her area were few and far between. This led to Humphrey making and selling her own – and now, despite her uncertain prognosis, she said her mission is helping people struggling with hair loss feel like themselves again. “My message is I get it, and that’s why I love the wigs that we produce,” Humphrey told PA Real Life. “I’m proud of the wigs that we produce, and I’m so grateful that people choose us to be a part of their journey. “Every wig is made with love and strength, they are made from the heart, and me and my entire team, we all want them to be just perfect.” Cervical cancer is a cancer that is found anywhere in the cervix – the opening between the vagina and the womb. Symptoms include unusual vaginal bleeding, changes to vaginal discharge, pain during sex or pain in your lower back, the NHS says. Humphrey, who was working as a detective in London at the time and had only just opened her salon, said she had no symptoms prior to her diagnosis and “always found an excuse to cancel [her] smear test”. It was only when a colleague strongly encouraged her to book her smear test, seven years after she was first invited to have one, that she received her diagnosis in October 2017. She said she holds herself responsible for this and has since campaigned for other women to book their smear tests without delay by sharing the message “Don’t be me”. Speaking about her first diagnosis, she said: “I walked into the room and I looked at the consultant and, before I’d even sat down, I said ‘Have I got cancer?’ And he said ‘Yes’. “Then I said ‘Am I going to die?’ And he said, ‘I need to examine you and then I can tell you.’” Humphrey explained that telling her son, who she wishes to keep anonymous, was the hardest part, and she later underwent a radical hysterectomy, which was performed via keyhole surgery. A biopsy revealed she was in remission just weeks later, and while this was positive news she felt “lost” afterwards. She did not process the “trauma” of the cancer and the fact she could no longer get pregnant due to the radical hysterectomy until much later. “Emotionally I struggled because although I didn’t necessarily want more children, I wasn’t ready to to lose that option,” Humphrey explained. “I grieved not having more children, I grieved something I didn’t have, and I never sought help on that, ever. “Given it’s a gynaecological cancer as well, when I visit my local hospital for any appointment, I sit in a room with pregnant people waiting for their appointments. “They come out of their appointments happy, with their files and scan photos, and you’re sitting there, thinking ‘I can’t have that any more’.” In the years that followed, after Humphrey was medically retired from the police, she continued with cervical cancer awareness campaigns and focused on her salon. However, she started to experience agonising pain in her left leg in 2021 and could not pinpoint the exact source of it. After undergoing scans and tests, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer recurrence just two days before Christmas that year. She then underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which caused her to experience sickness, muscle aches, nose bleeds and ulcers in her mouth. During her second round of chemotherapy she lost her hair within two weeks. “I remember saying to one of the nurses ‘The next time I see you in three weeks, will I have hair?’ And she just said ‘No’, and it was true,” Humphrey said. “I was stood outside my salon on week two and it was really windy and I was trying to make a phone call outside. “I said to my colleague ‘My hair is being blown out of my head’ – it was literally just floating past us – so we shaved it off.” Humphrey said she embraced being “bald and proud” initially, but she missed the “comfort” that having hair gave her – and so her journey to creating her own human hair wigs began. Each wig starts from approximately £450, depending on the length and thickness, and can take up to three weeks to make as Humphrey and her team at the salon custom-colour each one. Humphrey said she will often “work into the night” to finish an order, if required, and some customers have even cried when seeing the finished product. She has since partnered with Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust as well, and for every wig sold through the charity she will donate 10 per cent of the proceeds to the organisation. She explained: “Wearing wigs has given me so much reassurance in a world where nothing is certain. “Just having a wig on gives me that comfort and ability to just be normal, and I want to help others achieve that feeling.” In October 2022, Humphrey was informed her cancer is incurable and she will most likely not reach remission again – however she is determined to keep fighting. She is now having pembrolizumab – a type of immunotherapy – and has regular check-ups, and although she was told that statistically she may only have 18 months to live, she said she wants to “prove everyone wrong, even if (she dies) trying”, and she will not stop her “passion” of making wigs for others. “The results we get are amazing, they’re happy, and being able to support someone with part of their journey is so rewarding – it’s always something I’ve wanted to do,” she said. “It helps them feel confident, and the comfort comes in, but it’s just the fact they can walk out their front door feeling normal.” She added: “If my journey can help someone in the future, then I’m all in.” To find out more about Humphrey and the wigs she and her team make, search @saramanda1_wigs on Instagram. For more information and support about cervical cancer, visit Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust’s website here. 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Excerpts from an upcoming memoir by The Umbrella Academy actor Elliot Page have revealed the Juno star allegedly received a rape threat from an “acquaintance” at a Los Angeles party – six years before they came out as transgender. Page came out as gay in 2014, but in a section of the book seen and shared by People, the 36-year-old details an incident at a birthday party two months later in which the unnamed individual claimed, “you aren’t gay – that doesn’t exist” and that the Canadian was “just afraid of men”. The chapter, titled “Famous A**hole at Party”, goes on to add the male then reportedly told Page: “I’m going to f*** you to make you realise you aren’t gay.” Despite the threat of ‘corrective rape’ – a hate crime where the abuser seeks to change or ‘cure’ a person’s sexuality, often to heterosexuality – the anonymous actor apparently told Page at the gym, where they saw each other again a few days later, that they “don’t have a problem with gay people, I swear.” “I think you might,” Page replied. Expanding on the situation, Page told People he’s had “some version” of the incident “happen many times throughout my life”. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “A lot of queer and trans people deal with it incessantly. These moments that we often like don’t talk about or we’re supposed to just brush off, when actually it’s very awful. “I put that story in the book because it’s about highlighting the reality, the s*** we deal with and what gets sent to us constantly – particularly in environments that are predominantly cis and heterosexual. “How we navigate that world where you either have more extreme, overt moments like that, or you have the more, like, subtle jokes. [In Hollywood] these are very powerful people – they’re the ones choosing what stories are being told and creating content for people to see all around the world,” they said. Page added that although he’s “purposely” not sharing the name of the individual, the person “will hear about this and know it’s him”, and there were others who saw and heard what happened at the party. Pageboy is published on Tuesday. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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New York Jets fans are getting so angry with their team that they are spitting straight fury. Or, in this case, spitting teeth. As the American football side fell to a 15-10 loss against the New England Patriots on Sunday, one supporter got so irate that he ended up losing his teeth. And this was a while before the Jets succumbed to defeat – the teeth flew out when the man screamed with rage as they went just 3-0 down in the second quarter of the match. Thankfully, it was only the Jets that lost – the fan managed to regain composure, catch his teeth and pop them straight back in. The footage was seized upon by both Jim Nantz and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who got a laugh out of the live clip during a brief intermission of play. "You can see it on their face, the frustration. You know you are frustrated when your teeth come out," Romo said while Nantz chuckled away. Jets QB Zach Wilson completed 18 of his 36 passes without managing to get a touchdown, gaining just 157 yards as the Jets' struggles continued. They will face the Kansas City Chiefs next week – and things aren't looking like they'll get better any time soon. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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