Heidi Bratt started losing her hair her senior year of high school.
"I was angry. It was devastating. I said, 'Why me?'" Bratt remembers. "But now I know the reason why."
For 15 years, the Ipswich woman has fought for the rights of people with alopecia areata, a little-known, life-altering skin disease that causes hair to fall out. Some of the 4 million Americans with the condition lose all their hair, sometimes overnight. Some develop a few bare patches on their head. Others, like Bratt, lose most of their hair slowly, agonizingly so.
Bratt got her first wig for her sister's wedding.
"I didn't want to walk down the aisle with a half-bald head," she says.
She soon discovered the $300 cost was not covered by insurance. Wigs, she was told, are considered a "cosmetic" expense. Bratt thought the reasoning was absurd. And she didn't understand why insurance would cover wigs for people who lose hair during chemotherapy and not her.
Her fight began.
She e-mails state representatives and senators weekly, sometimes daily, sometimes twice a day. She calls. She writes letters. She has testified at the Statehouse in support of a bill that would require insurance companies to cover the cost of the wigs.
Two years ago, she worked with others to get Gov. Deval Patrick to designate the third week of September as Alopecia Awareness Week.
"You have to fight for what you believe in," she says. "I've been fighting since the day I was born."
This is not an exaggeration. Bratt, now 49, was born prematurely and suffered brain damage at birth. She has lived with her parents all her life. She does not drive. She works 40 hours a week as a housekeeper at a nursing home in Rowley.
Then, as soon as she gets home, she starts her second job. Although "job" is not the right word. It's her purpose in life.
"It's amazing what she has accomplished," says her sister, Lori Lynn. "It's hard to keep up with all the certificates she has on her wall."
Bratt grew up in Beverly and now lives with her sister and her family and their elderly parents in Ipswich. Her sister recently bought her a laptop to help make the lobbying easier.
"She's good to me," Bratt says. "She's the best sister in the world."
Seven days a week, she works in support of the proposed legislation — Senate Bill No. 523.
"If you have a fight, you want someone like Heidi on your team," says Chrissa Kaselis, the leader of an alopecia support group who also testified in support of the legislation.
Kaselis, a mother of two, has spent more than $10,000 on wigs since she was diagnosed in 1996 shortly after graduating from college. A realistic-looking, human hair wig can cost upward of $3,000. Kaselis finds it ridiculous that insurance would cover counseling to restore her self-esteem, but not the wig, which would be cheaper.
State Rep. Brian Dempsey of Haverhill first met Bratt more than 15 years ago after he filed a bill to try to get a wig covered for a constituent. Bratt called to express her support, and then called again. He said they talked back and forth on the phone so often that the first time they finally met in person, they hugged.
"She's unbelievable," Dempsey says.
Dempsey said it's never easy to get mandated coverage legislation passed. Kaselis puts their chances this time at 50-50.
Bratt feels hopeful. But if it fails this year, she says, there is next year.
"This is something I have to do. It's something deep inside me," she says, patting her heart. "A lot of people are depending on me."
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This is my last column for The Salem News, as I am leaving to explore new opportunities. I am deeply grateful to all of you for reading and extend a special thanks to the people out there who trusted me with their stories.
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