WXYZ and Fox 2 Detroit: BCFM Patient and Cancer Survivor, Micah Allison, Starts Local Wig Business to Help Others Battling Cancer

WXYZ

(WXYZ) - When Micah Allison started feeling off, as a daycare worker, she said she didn’t think much of it. "I was just drained at work every day. Like, I was just tired," she said.

But then, at 19, came a diagnosis she never expected.

"She's like, 'well, the results just came back and it's lymphoma.' And I'm like, 'OK.' I'm just looking at her like, 'I don't know what that is,'" said Micah.

For months, the Harper Woods resident went through rounds of chemo as she tried hard to keep a positive outlook.

"I'm pretty tough, I would say. So I just tried to, you know, just be ... resilient when it comes to things in situations like that," she said.

But Micah said it was after she was in remission from blood cancer that everything she had gone through took a toll.

"Afterwards, I would say was when ... I fell into a depression," she said.

Micah said the steroids made her gain weight, and she lost her hair. She said she just didn’t feel like herself.

"Post chemo and post treatment, it was just like, yeah, this is going to take a little while to ... get myself back to me," said Micah.

When she started looking at wigs, Micah said they were out of her price range, so she decided to make one.

"I just woke up and I was just like, 'I'm going to learn how to make a leap,'" she said. "I can watch YouTube and just teach myself how to do it ... just to cut costs and everything, and I did it."

And that was the catalyst for the now 22-year-old’s business House of Eternal Beauty.

"It just kind of kept growing and growing," she said.

Micah now makes wigs out of her house to sell online. "It is something that I really enjoy, and I'm just like, 'why not?' You know?" said Micah.

She credits her success to the support she received both during and after treatment from her family and The Blood Cancer Foundation of Michigan.

"Our goal really is to provide comprehensive, kind of holistic support to blood cancer patients and their families. Because we know when you're diagnosed with a blood cancer, your life is turned upside down," said Melissa Antoncic, director of patient support at The Blood Cancer Foundation of Michigan.

Micah added, "I was surrounded by a lot of love, of course. And, you know, I just didn't feel any worry in my heart."

The foundation aims to be there for people no matter where they are in their cancer journey.

"That makes us feel so great, too, to know that somebody that we're connected with is succeeding in so many ways beyond what we could have ever imagined," said Melissa.

For Micah, now she’s set her sights on growing her business with a hope to one day help others.

"I want to eventually be able to help people that were in the same or are in the same shoes that I was in," she said.

Micah's business, House of Eternal Beauty, is online — you can check out her work on Instagram.

By: Alexandra Bahou | View the original article here

Story by Amy Lange. Originally published by Fox 2 on July 14, 2022. View the original article here.

Fox 2

HARPER WOODS, Mich. (FOX 2) - Micah Allison spends hours at her sewing machine at her home in Harper Woods - the 22-year-old is making wigs - a passion that grew out of a devastating diagnosis three years ago.

"She said, 'You have lymphoma' - and I'm just looking at her like, I don't know what that means," Micah said. "She's like - 'Well it's a form of cancer' and I was just like - cancer - that's the last thing I expected."

Stage two Hodgkins lymphoma. She would need chemo - and lose her hair - and when that happened, she needed a wig.

"The wig was like $700 and I was like - wow," she said.

That's when Micah turned to YouTube to learn how to do it herself.

"It took me about two to three days to make that first wig - but I did it," she said.

Since then she's taken classes, purchased a sewing machine and now - in addition to being a nanny - she's started her own business, House of Eternal Beauty Wig Shop.

"She's amazing - she continues to blow us away and impress us with how resourceful she is, how she's able to take a difficult situation and turn it into something so positive and so successful," said Melissa Antoncic.

Antoncic is the director of Patient Support for the Blood Cancer Foundation of Michigan. It is a statewide nonprofit supporting blood cancer patients and their families.

"In the state of Michigan in fact - nearly 6,000 people each year are diagnosed with blood cancer," Antonic said.

A scary, expensive, time-consuming disease - and the foundation is there to help.

"Our goal is really to provide comprehensive support," she said. "We want to provide emotional assistance, financial support - social support - all of those things that are affected when somebody's diagnosed with a blood cancer."

It's support that has inspired Micah to hopefully open her own foundation someday.

"To take a difficult situation like having been diagnosed and saying, wow, wigs for cancer patients are so expensive - what can I do to ease that burden - not only for herself but now for others," Antoncic said.

Between the hair, the materials, and the time it takes to make a wig - now Micah understands why it's so expensive - still she wants to make them more accessible for everyone.

"I know how hard it was for myself to find a wig," she said. "I want to make it accessible to everybody and even like cancer patients and things like that. I want to make it easy."

Micah has been in remission for three years.

You can find her and House of Eternal Beauty on Instagram or Facebook HERE.