Garden City ? Shirley Arteaga has donated her thick dark hair to Locks of Love twice, but doing so for a second time has added meaning for the Garden City resident.

The first time, six or seven years ago, Arteaga lovingly grew 28 inches of her hair for the national nonprofit agency that creates special hair pieces for children in need. She took the initiative because “it was for a good cause,” she said.

Since then — three cervical cancer-free years later and after discovering that her father is battling cancer — the 46-year-old director of the Argus home health services at the Center for Independent Living Southwest Kansas chopped off 16 more inches of her dark locks, sprinkled with streaks of gray, because of how cancer has touched her life personally.

“There have been a couple of children I’ve known through families who’ve had cancer. When I did it the first time, I knew (Locks of Love) needed hair … I wanted to give back,” Arteaga said. “With this second experience, there’s the cancer in my life, there’s my father, and there’s the customers we work with, too.”

The news she had cancerous cells in her cervix came out of nowhere prior to her diagnosis three years ago, said Arteaga, who has been healthy most all of her life.

“I remember around that time getting really sick, losing a lot of blood, and I realized something wasn’t going right. I was weak and fatigued all the time,” she said, relating that she heard the unfortunate news from her doctor over the phone. “I knew there was no reason to get upset and break things. Instead, we kept the information in the immediate family, to be private about it. But I also told the folks at my workplace, and they were so understanding about it.”

Arteaga says her clients and her coworkers at the Center for Independent Living helped her through the personal struggle with cancer because some of the 35 patients serviced in the immediate area through her organization also are cancer patients in various stages of treatment. Even prior to her personal battle, the work has been rewarding and especially meaningful.

“I enjoy everything about assistance and helping people. Seeing a smile on their faces when their needs are met is the best part,” she said.

To rid her body of cancerous cells, Arteaga had a hysterectomy, a total removal of the uterus, and has remained cancer free since the surgery.

But the struggles in the family continue. Her 72-year-old father who lives in Wichita, Daniel Otero, is battling gastral cancer, a condition of the stomach, and has been undergoing chemotherapy for nearly two years, putting an added strain on the family, and even more reason to help cancer patients like him, she said.

“I was blessed that mine was caught just in time and there was no need for (radiation) treatment,” she said, adding that a doctor’s visit every three months now keeps her body in check.

Before losing nearly a foot of her hair at Generations Salon, a Locks of Love participating salon, Arteaga said she realized her hair would be incredibly short, possibly near her chin but that would “be just fine.”

Locks of Love organizers say they always are in need of hair to create the hairpieces the nonprofit helps provide to financially disadvantaged people younger than 21 who are suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.

Most Locks of Love recipients suffer from alopecia areata, an auto-immune disorder that causes the hair follicles to shut down. Others have experienced hair loss from radiation therapy and chemotherapy, severe burns or trauma, and various other genetic and dermatological conditions, according to the organization’s website.

At least 10 inches of donated hair are needed to manufacture a wig. The manufacturing process uses up to two inches of hair, leaving only eight inches of hair to create a jaw-length hairpiece. Most of the children who receive hairpieces from Locks of Love are little girls and most want long hair, according to Locks of Love. Gray hair is accepted for donation, too, and is sold by the organization to offset their costs, according to the Locks of Love website. Permed or color-treated hair also is accepted.

Following her momentous haircut, Arteaga said, members of her extended family began following suit.

“I really do like (my hair) now; it’s a lot lighter. When I shampoo my hair, I don’t need all that shampoo,” she said and laughed. “My (28-year-old) daughter (Lindsey) did the same thing recently. She surprised me and sent me a (picture) text that’s she’d donated her hair, as well, and an aunt of mine and another aunt, too.”