Hairdresser shocked by her friend's experience of buying a wig sets out to transform the process for other breast cancer survivors

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A hairdresser launched a charity to provide people with free and stylish wigs after seeing her friends "truly awful" wig buying experience while dealing with breast cancer.

Salon owner and stylist Melissa Menga, 36, went to a specialist wig shop with her friend and mum-of-two, Leanne Priestley, 33, last autumn, following her double mastectomy after finding two lumps in her left breast.

But Melissa was left shocked by the lack of choice and personal care provided so she and a colleague at the salon near her home in Bury have since hand-made Leanne a wig that she wears every day.

Melissa, a single mum to Leon, 16, and Laila, 12, said: “The experience of getting a wig for Leanne was truly awful.

"The space was a tiny warehouse on an industrial estate. The wigs were thousands of pounds, but stacked up in boxes.

"There was nothing special about it, nothing personal and I could see Leanne was just devastated.”

Leanne first confided in Melissa that she had found two lumps in her left breast in June 2021, as her children, Roman, six, and Arabella, four, joined Laila at a soft play centre - the pair have been friends since childhood.

Melissa said: “She mentioned she’d found these two lumps in her breast and I just burst into tears.

"My emotions were pretty over the top, but I just couldn’t stop picturing the worst.”

Leanne and her company director partner Brett, 32, were soon informed that she had stage three beast cancer which had spread to her lymph nodes.

While doctors recommended less drastic solutions and treatment, Leanne insisted on having a double mastectomy last August at North Manchester General Hospital in order to make sure the cancer was truly gone.

In addition, she would have more surgery to remove several lymph