I have a friend named Maegan that I’ve only known for about two and a half years, yet I feel like I’ve known her for so much longer and I consider her to be my best friend. We met through the job I currently work at, and ever since we have been pretty much inseparable. I would like to think I know everything about her, but she surprises me every day and her generosity is admirable.

For a long time I didn’t know that my friend wore a wig, and then one day she mentioned it and out of curiosity I asked her why. She nonchalantly told me she cut her hair when she learned her friend had cancer, then she went on to talk about something else and all I could think was wow, what a friend. Recently for the first time ever, we spoke it about it and I think what she did was not only extremely thoughtful, but also inspiring.

During Maegan’s sophomore year in college, she received the worst news possible. Her childhood friend, who was also in college, was diagnosed with lymphoma. Although the cancer was caught in its first stages, her friends family was informed that the cancer was very aggressive and one of the worst cancers to have.

Maegan’s friend was also attending college and lived in an apartment near her school in New York City and Maegan would go down to visit whenever she could.

Once the chemo treatments started, Maegan remembers her friend telling her that she was going to have to shave her head because her hair would continue to fall out.

“She told me how scared she was, so I told her I’d shave my head too, and she just laughed it off like ‘ha, ha, yeah OK,’ and then we never spoke about it again,” Maegan recalls.

A few weeks later Maegan went to visit her ill friend and noticed her hair was cut shorter. Her friends’ mother told Maegan that her friend no longer brushed her hair to prevent it from falling out, so Maegan would brush it for her, “While I was brushing it, clumps of hair started to come out and I was just like, oh my God.”

Her friend tried to accept the fact that she was going bald and confided in Maegan about her fears of looking like a boy. To lift her friends’ spirits Maegan told her how beautiful and pretty she was, but Maegan knew that wasn’t enough.

“I’ll never forget it was Colombus Day weekend and I had already been cutting my hair short, so I just decided to cut it all off.”

Maegan cut her hair off before her friend did and decided not to tell her, “I didn’t tell her because of her. One day I just took my wig off and she was like, ‘oh you cut your hair?’ and I was just like yeah I’m going natural.” Maegan believed that if her friend knew she cut her hair for her she’d feel bad and it would defeat the purpose of it – she didn’t want her to feel alone.

In the beginning, Maegan had a difficult time adjusting to her new look and at times she felt as though certain friends would be embarrassed to be around her and her wig, but that didn’t take anything from her act of kindness.

I’ve always known Maegan to be a kind person, but this was something beyond kind. How many of you would go to the lengths of cutting off all your hair to comfort a friend in need? And then keep it a secret out of the humbleness of your heart. I cherish the friendship I have with Maegan and I hope that if she is ever in need I can be there for her the way she was courageously there for her friend.

Today, Maegan and her childhood friend aren’t as close as they once were but Maegan wouldn’t change what she did for anything and still finds no need to tell her friend that she did it for her, “I never said anything and she never said anything, so I feel like we both just knew.”

Have You Ever Done Something Courageous For A Friend?