Proud to be from Pittsburgh: Hair Peace Charities

PITTSBURGH — Bonny Diver is changing lives in Pittsburgh, but it's her horse Romeo that changed hers.
 
"Horses were always my passion, so I think God said, this is how I get to her," she said.
 
Diver's world changed forever 10 years ago, when she stagfell off Romeo, broke her shoulder, and felt a lump on the side of her breast.
 
"I thought, cancer means you're going to die," she told Channel 11's Katherine Amenta.
 
Diver said in the beginning, she started planning her funeral instead of her treatment, but eventually that changed.
 
"From being a victim, to a survivor, to a warrior because it's a battle," Diver said. 
 
Her battle plan included starting Hair Peace Charities, a nonprofit that has now helped more than 800 women and girls facing cancer in Pittsburgh get wigs.
 
 "It allows you to go out and not have someone come up to you and say, 'oh honey, are you OK?'" she said.
 
Naomi Howard, who has stage 4 breast cancer, knows that freedom.
 
"It's one thing to have cancer, but to lose your hair, everyone knows you're sick," she said.
 
Channel 11 caught up with Howard at Creative Hair Solutions in Allison Park where her long road with Diver's organization began.
 
Wigs can cost several hundred dollars and Hair Peace gives women a $150 check towards a wig of their choice.
 
"I wandered into a Hair Peace meeting, and it was there that I found a home," said Howard of the organization.
 
Diver provides women with a new hair style and plenty of support. 
 
"I said, 'And what kind of cancer do you have?' And all the sudden she just started crying, and she said, 'This is so hard for me to talk about.' And I said, 'OK, well let's talk about it,'" Diver said of a recent conversation with a cancer patient.
 
Diver gives cancer survivors something money can't buy and that makes us proud to be from Pittsburgh.
 
Not all insurance plans cover wigs, so a $350 wig on top of co-payments and other medical costs can add up.
 
To learn more about Hair Peace Charities log on to http://hairpeace.org/.

WPXI