Group gets close shave to support St. Lazare youth

Such was the lesson 13 year-old Marc Normandeau learned last weekend when 17 of his friends, family members and team mates cut it close to support the St. Lazare youth as he battles a reoccurrence of leukemia for the second time in his life.

The informal head shaving party was organized when Normandeau decided it was time to shear-off his own locks after four weeks of chemotherapy caused clumps of his hair to fall out.

He has 100 weeks of treatments left to complete.

Doctors are confident they can successfully treat Normandeau.

Normandeau’s father, Pierre, said kids from his son’s Trois-Lacs Pee-Wee AA hockey team and others from Westwood Jr., where Normandeau attends as a Sec. I student, said they too would be shaved so Marc wouldn’t be alone sporting cropped hair.

Other shavees included hockey coaches, former Little League team mates, Normandeau’s cousins and others.

“He was so high when he went to bed he was really, really happy and touched,” said Pierre. “He really found out who his true friends were.”

Normandeau was first diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, ALL, a type of blood cancer, when he was four years-old.

After undergoing 2 1/2 years of chemotherapy doctors said he was in remission.

According to Pierre, if a patient is going to relapse it usually happens pretty quickly, so it was a surprise when Marc began feeling sick a little more than a month ago, while visiting Disney World in Florida.

He had been in remission for nine years.

His strength now depleted by the chemotherapy, Normandeau has stopped going to school where he’s an honour roll student. The school has arranged for him to be tutored at home.

Pierre says his son worries about falling behind because he wants to become a doctor.

Far from feeling sorry for himself however, Normandeau’s zest for living and achieving positive things has increased.

“What the disease did is affect his character,” said Pierre. “(Marc) now says that whatever he does, he’ll do to the best of his ability.”

In addition to playing AA hockey as a goaltender, Marc led his St. Lazare Little League team to a provincial championship as a pitcher a few years ago. He also plays in the school band.

And having a selfless attitude seems to run in the family. When Marc’s cousins Ryan, 12, and Daniel, 9, came home pretty well bald Sunday night, their mom says she almost cried.

“But they said to me, ‘it’s only hair mom, it’ll grow back and we helped Marc tonight.’ They taught me a lesson,” said Jennifer Cook of St. Lazare.