Boy shaves it off for cancer research

BY MARC LALONDE

The Chronicle

Six-year-old first-grader Ludovic Martin sat apprehensively in a chair outside the Comfort Inn Pointe Claire on St. John’s Boulevard waiting for the inevitable buzz of the electric clippers coming to shave his hair down to the scalp.

Beats what his grandmother was going through a week earlier, though.

On Sept. 30, Martin’s grandmother, Pierrefonds resident Francine Bombardier was in Sacré-Coeur Hospital undergoing a mastectomy that, she hoped, would put an end to the cancer cells that gathered in her breast.

Fast-forward six days, Bombardier, now seemingly cancer-free, watched her grandson get his head shaved as part of Mix 96 radio station’s Shave to Save Program. Employees of the Comfort Inn — including Martin’s aunt and Bombardier’s daughter Julie Bombardier — have raised more than $5,000 in less than two years for breast-cancer research.

So when Ludovic, an irrepressible first-grader at Harwood Elementary School in Vaudreuil-Dorion, saw what his grandmother — who was diagnosed with breast cancer in July — was going through, he wanted to help the only way he could.

“We explained to Ludovic about the disease, and he has been very sensitive to it. I think we were able to demystify the illness for him,� said mother Isabelle Bombardier.

“He wanted to do whatever he could to help his grandmother, and this is how he wants to do that,� she said.

Nearby, Francine Bombardier choked back tears as she talked about her ordeal with breast cancer. She said her grandson’s empathy was heart wrenching.

“He thought by shaving his head, he could save me. He couldn’t literally do that, but he’s saving me, just by his gesture,� she said. “I’m very proud of Ludovic, and in my heart, it’s something I’ll remember forever.�

Bombardier said she hasn’t been given a clean bill of health yet from her surgeon, but remained very confident she’s seen the last of cancer for now.

“It’s going very well. It’s a small miracle, right now. I don’t know if the cancer’s all gone, but I sure feel like it’s gone. I’m very confident about that,� she said.

Moments later, Mix 96 DJ Rob Kemp, who’s had his own head shaved five times in six years for the Shave to Save program, laid into Ludovic’s chestnut brown locks and began the shearing while Ludovic, ever the stoic, just looked on.

Last year, Mix 96 shaved between 200 and 250 heads in its quest to stamp out beast cancer, a representative said.