Even as a baby, Hannah had fine hair but it wasn’t until she was 16 years old that alopecia presented itself. Within 2 weeks, most of Hannah’s hair had disappeared. She later learnt it was alopecia areata.

Hannah had an appointment with her local GP who, after much perseverance on our part, agreed to refer her to a dermatologist who specialised in hair loss. Initially we had to travel from Suffolk to Central London for these appointments as it seemed there was little local NHS support for anyone with alopecia especially with Hannah being only 16 years old.

At that time (14 years ago) many different departments within the NHS worked to different age thresholds for adult and paediatric services. Some changed to adults at 16 and some 18, so being 16 years old meant that Hannah was in a difficult transition period, with paediatric departments wanting to pass responsibility to adult services but adult services felt she should be treated by paediatric services. It wasn’t until she was 19 years old that the NHS offered her steroid injections which briefly promoted regrowth but never lasted.

Hannah was initially refused any kind of support in regard to wigs via the NHS on the basis that she was under 18 and her hair loss was not caused by cancer. This struck Hannah as being very unfair as she believed the psychological impact of hair loss to be the same whatever the cause.  This resulted in her searching for further support and information networks and in doing so she discovered Alopecia UK which we can honestly say completed changed her perspective by making her realise that she was not alone. 

By contacting Alopecia UK, Hannah started to find out more information about alopecia and also a greater understanding of the variations in levels of care and support offered depending on where in the country you lived and which NHS Trust you fell under.

Hannah’s first interactions with Alopecia UK were online via the charity's forum, but her first face-to-face meeting with anyone from the charity was in 2013 for a meet up with Joanna Rowsell following her cycling success at the London 2012 Olympic Games, as part of a press event around lottery funded projects. This further showed Hannah that she wasn’t alone and also meant that she met younger people with alopecia, which sparked her interest in supporting younger people and their families online, to ensure they had access to more information at an earlier stage than she did regarding their condition. Over time, Hannah had discovered information regarding eye brow tattooing (including places that would offer it for free to anyone with alopecia), wig types, use of headscarves and how to style them etc.

Hannah attended Alopecia UK's first two Big Weekend events, London in 2014 and Manchester in 2015. She found the guest speakers from the dermatology field really informative and inspiring, to learn that there were specialists and researchers dedicating their career to understand more about alopecia. Her interaction with others at these events further fuelled her passion that there should be a communication channel specifically aimed at younger members. So when members of the AUK team approached her with the idea of her acting as a single point of contact for younger members and their families, she was elated that they felt she could offer her support to help raise awareness and understanding.  Hannah’s overriding passion was to address the potential mental impact that alopecia can have on a person, when they look in the mirror and don’t recognise the person looking back at them. She always felt that too little emphasis was put on hair loss via non-cancer causes, and the long term mental health issues this could be storing up.

Unfortunately alopecia was not Hannah’s only battle. She also suffered with Non Epileptic Seizures and a condition called EDS (Elhers Danlos Syndrome), an inherited genetic condition which affects the connective tissue within the body. This unfortunately meant that she was unable to attend the Alopecia UK Alton Towers events, something which we know she would have relished.

Hannah passed in 2018, at just 23 years old. At her funeral in March 2018 we were overwhelmed by the number of people who attended, showing just how many lives she must have touched. We were particularly touched and humbled by the fact that someone from the AUK community who hadn’t met Hannah in person, only interacting online, attended her funeral which further emphasised the fact that the AUK community is a family.

As parents we are beyond proud that the Hannah Dennis Alopecia Awareness Award is awarded each year in Hannah’s name. Throughout her life Hannah had always wanted to be remembered. She had always insisted that what she wanted to achieve was to be able to change something in the world and we feel like this award is a fitting legacy to Hannah who would have been incredibly proud of having her name to this award. Nominations are open now for the 2025 Hannah Dennis Alopecia Awareness Award and we look forward to joining the judging panel and reading about all the wonderful young people doing great things to raise awareness.