The Anne Veck Artistic Team is thrilled and honoured to be participating in the amazing Alternative Hair Show for the sixth time! This year’s theme for the global hair event of the year is “Odyssey” and Anne’s presentation will be inspired by her recent travels to Japan.
This year we shall benefit from the special creative input of the 2015 Winner of the International Visionary Award, none other than our very own uber talented Emmanuel Esteban! Anne and Emmanuel will combine their artistry and flare to create a show stopping demonstration of avant garde hairdressing!
Why is the Alternative Hair Show so important?
As well as show casing the greatest hairdressing talent from around the world, The Alternative Hair Charitable Foundation raises funds to fight leukaemia.
The Show, now in its 33rd year, has already contributed in excess of £9 million towards successful research into childhood leukaemia so that today more than nine out of 10 children survive this life threatening cancer of the blood. However, these encouraging results do not extend to infants (those aged 12 months or less). The latest grants from the Foundation will support research under the auspices of Bloodwise that is designed to lead to a better understanding of this dilemma and so onwards to meeting the challenge it presents.
There is growing evidence that many forms of childhood leukaemia start to develop in the womb. Immature blood cells in the foetus develop genetic faults that mean they are vulnerable to being transformed into leukaemia cells months or even years after birth. This ‘two hit’ theory of how childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) develops was uncovered by Professor Mel Greaves at the Institute of Cancer Research, whose work The Alternative Hair Charitable Trust has funded in the past. The findings have profoundly changed understanding of the origins of childhood leukaemia.
The foundation kick started its new grant making programme by donating £65,000 to Bloodwise (formerly Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research). The money will go towards a ground-breaking research project at the University of Oxford looking into the origins of infant leukaemia.
The new University of Oxford project that The Alternative Hair Charitable Trust is funding is looking into infant ALL, which is biologically different to childhood ALL. This rare and aggressive type of leukaemia develops in children under 12 months of age, and, in contrast to leukaemia diagnosed in older children, still has very poor survival rates, with only just over half surviving for longer than five years. The chemotherapy needed is gruelling—some babies die from the side effects of their treatment and many survivors suffer health problems in later life.
Researchers led by Dr Anindita Roy will investigate immature foetal blood cells to see what happens to transform them into leukaemia cells shortly after birth. If successful, this project could provide crucial information on how infant ALL starts, an important step in designing better, kinder treatments for these babies and possibly even stopping these diseases developing in the first place.
For tickets click here . Don’t miss it, Sunday evening 16th October at The Royal Albert Hall. 
