SALISBURY TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2014 A Lehigh Valley teen is giving back to the cancer community, in style.<\/p>\n
The 15-year-old cancer survivor did her part to help two donors make wigs for other kids going through cancer treatments.<\/p>\n
“I’ll be walking out of here almost bald,” said Robert Hockenbury, Certified Bio-med Equipment Technician at Lehigh Valley Health Network. “This is a good day.”<\/p>\n
It’s a new-do that Hockenbury has been anticipating for a long time.<\/p>\n
“It didn’t seem to be growing fast enough for me,” said Hockenbury.<\/p>\n
After a year and a half, Hockenbury is donating his locks in honor of those close to his heart.<\/p>\n
“It’s going to a good cause, and that’s all that matters,” said Hockenbury. “2016, my father died of cancer, and 2017 my mother died of cancer, and I wanted to do something to help.”<\/p>\n
Hockenbury also lost his dear friend and father figure to cancer in 2018.<\/p>\n
“This is for them and for the kids,” said Hockenbury.<\/p>\n
He’s putting all of his trust in 15-year-old cancer survivor Emily FaRannte and he’s joined by a special guest.<\/p>\n
“I know, ‘Rosie;, her stuffed animal that she doesn’t let anyone else hold, and I got to hold it,” Hockenbury said.<\/p>\n
“Rosie” is FaRannte’s toy plush Squishmallow and best friend, that helped her through her treatments.<\/p>\n
“It’s just something in my heart was telling me, Rosie needs to sit with them,” said FaRannte.<\/p>\n
FaRannte also chopped Lehigh Valley Health Network Patient Care Coordinator Kristina Bubrow’s hair.<\/p>\n
“14 inches taken off,” said Bubrow.<\/p>\n
The donations support “Wigs for Kids”, an organization that makes wigs for children going through cancer treatments.<\/p>\n
“When I’m able to help give back to the people who helped me, I love doing it,” said FaRannte.<\/p>\n
Hockenbury said this fresh cut marks the start of his third journey to donate his hair to the kids.<\/p>\n
“And have all the ponytails that need to come with it,” said Hockenbury. “Absolutely.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALISBURY TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2014 A Lehigh Valley teen is giving back to the cancer community, in style. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,232,153,155,154,9868],"class_list":{"0":"post-87603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-_homepage_top_stories","9":"tag-allentown-area","10":"tag-bethlehem","11":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","12":"tag-bethlehem-news","13":"tag-good-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}