OhioHealth Capital City Half Marathon Registration Fees to Benefit Cold Cap Therapy Program
The OhioHealth Capital City Half Marathon is coming up on April 29 and will be celebrating their 20th year. A portion of race registration for the OhioHealth Capital City Half Marathon will go to the OhioHealth Foundation.
The Foundation will use those dollars to provide funding for OhioHealth’s Cold Cap Therapy program, an innovative cancer care treatment that can help prevent or minimize hair loss from chemotherapy. Most traditional insurance plans do not cover costs associated with cold capping, so this philanthropic support means cancer patients can retain a sense of dignity and control during their treatment journey.
Bethany Golden, president of the Over My Head Boutique at the OhioHealth Bing Cancer Center and the Dublin Cancer Center says, “It essentially freezes patients' scalps in order to save their hair during some chemotherapy treatments.” Patients wear their cold caps before, during and after treatment.
Jen Ernst is a four-time Cap City participant. She’s also a breast cancer survivor, who chose to utilize cold capping during her treatment. She was able to keep nearly 70 percent of her hair and conceal what was lost. “I just kept thinking about the looks of pity that I would receive or the unsolicited conversations in the grocery store from strangers,” she said in an interview with 10TV.
Jen had some advice for those about to embark on cold cap therapy. “Manage your expectations,” she said. “So I think as long as you go in with realistic expectations and know that you will shed some hair. And try to focus on the hair that you are keeping, not the hair that you're losing.”
So far, more than 130 patients have been able to receive cold cap therapy, thanks to donor support of the OhioHealth Foundation. Based on the average out-of-pocket cost per patient for cold cap therapy, the OhioHealth Foundation has been able to cover about 75 percent of that cost. Additional funding is vital to sustain and grow OhioHealth’s cold cap therapy program and defray direct costs to patients on their cancer treatment journey.
Jen is thankful to this year’s participants for helping to support cold cap therapy through their race registration. “It will provide an opportunity to some women that may not be able to cold cap. Every woman should have access to it.”
Participating in the OhioHealth Capital City Half Marathon is not only a health investment within yourself but an investment in the fight against cancer.
To register for the OhioHealth Capital City Half Marathon, click here.
To learn more about Cold Cap Therapy at OhioHealth, click here.
