So my story was added to my company's newsletter this month. I received it yesterday, as with everyone else that works for the three casinos of ABS. Two here in Edmonton, one in Calgary and one in Lethbridge. I pasted the story below but added a pic of the article aswell, since the writing is small and would be hard to read.



As many of you may not know, September is Alopecia Awareness month. What is Alopecia? Alopecia is most common autoimmune disease but the least mentioned. This disease causes the immune system to become confused, attacking the hair follicles, causing hair loss. There is no cure. And this disease will affect any one at any age of any gender of any culture. It does not discriminate and your identity changes as a result. My name is Terri Heshka. I have been working at Yellowhead Casino for the last 10 years and I have alopecia.

This past year has been a major turning point in my life. After living with and hiding my alopecia for 29 years, I have learned to embrace the strength that I have and the person I have become. After finding a life changing support site (alopeciaworld.com) and having the wonderful support of my friends at work, I have taken what I have learned and sharing it with others in the community. To show others with alopecia that they are still the same wonderful, beautiful and strong people regardless of the physical changes that are happening to them. One year ago, I decided to not let alopecia control my life, by shaving the last of my hair off. My stand was ..."This disease may control my hair but it will not control my life any longer." I was surprised by how welcoming and supportive my friends and some of my co-workers have been about it. A few of the guys even shaved their heads for me, in support. (Even my boss)!!!

So what did I do with my new found strength? I put together an alopecia awareness night with the help of the Edmonton Capitals baseball team. I contacted radio and TV stations and was able to spread the word about this First Annual Alopecia Awareness event for Edmonton. And for this first annual event it was a wonderful success. I had children and adults with alopecia come out and meet eachother, knowing that they were no longer alone in this.

This is only the start of what I have planned. Im working on doing school presentations and building more awareness events in the community. My goal is to have alopecia more spoken of, to have children and adults with this disease to feel that they no longer have to hide themselves or be ashamed. We are still strong and beautiful ....just with less hair.