For Dad

Joyce Amitrano was in tears as she watched her daughter, Niamh, get her first full haircut.

It took seven years, not counting an occasional trim or two, for Niamh to grow her long, shiny brown hair down to her hips. “I loved her long hair,” her mother said. “I thought she’d cut just an inch or two.”

The infatuation with her 7-year-old daughter’s hair wasn’t the only reason Amitrano cried that day, or why tears welled in her eyes as her family told the story behind that haircut.

“My dad had cancer,” Niamh said. “So I said to my mom and dad, ‘Can I cut it and donate it?’”

Niamh, a bubbly second-grader at Timberpoint Elementary School in East Islip, decided to donate her hair to Locks of Love, a well-known non-profit that provides hairpieces to financially challenged children who suffer from long-term medical hair loss. Many of the recipients are undergoing chemotherapy treatments for cancer-related illnesses. Niamh had learned about the program from a friend at school who donated her hair to the organization. Niamh got her haircut on Aug. 8 in East Meadow.

Her father, Mike Amitrano, the longtime owner of Potter’s Pub in East Meadow, with Joyce, is a cancer survivor. He was diagnosed with lymphoma while his wife was pregnant with Niamh. Despite regular chemotherapy treatments, Amitrano’s outlook looked grim as tumors began to appear.

With the recommendation of doctors, he underwent stem cell transplantation, a process that works in conjunction with intensified chemotherapy. The transplantation of stem cells is said to help replace blood cells lost during chemotherapy.

“Chemotherapy wasn’t working,” Mike said. “This was the only option.”

At one point he spent three straight weeks in the hospital. Even after the procedure, he had to receive treatments at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. Balancing the intense treatment schedule with his ownership of the restaurant made it difficult for the Amitranos as they awaited the birth of their daughter. To help out before and after Niamh was born, Joyce’s family traveled from their home in Ireland to the Amitrano home in East Islip.

It was a two-year battle, but Mike’s cancer was eventually deemed by doctors to be in remission.

Niamh is too young to recall details of that difficult period, but her parents weren’t afraid to tell her the story. “We showed her photographs and everything,” Joyce said. “We didn’t want to lie. She was there for all of it.”

When she’s not in school, Niamh enjoys visiting her parents at their restaurant, which Mike has owned for 20 years. She is a swimmer and a dancer, and she enjoys playing tennis.

The family expects her hair to grow quickly. For now, she constantly brushes the knots out of her new short hairstyle. But once it grows out again to the 10 inches required for donation to Locks of Love, her next decision will be simple. “I’m going to donate and cut it again,” she said, “and I’ll cut it again.”

As they sat together, there were tears not only in Joyce’s eyes, but in Mike’s as well. “I’m really emotional about it,” he said. “We’re really proud of her.”

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