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By Jim Hall

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Cancer patients appear in Saffire video

Oct. 16, 2009 11:24 am

Seven local cancer patients appear in the video version of “Bald Headed Blues,” which went online last week.

The song is by Saffire-The Uppity Blues Women, left, a local blues group, and is included in the group’s latest album, “Havin’ the Last Word.” It describes the days and weeks following chemotherapy when a cancer patient loses her hair.

Gaye Adegbalola, co-author of the song and lead singer for Saffire, describes the decisions that the patient must make. She can laugh her hair down the drain or “wallow in the sorrow,” she says. In the end, she chooses life over death, declaring that she may not look as girly, but “it’s still the same me.” Cancer did not win, she says. She’s still “standing tall.”

The video was filmed at PinholeBox Rental Studios in Fredericksburg on Aug. 1 and 2 and was uploaded to YouTube on Oct. 7. The members of Saffire—Adegbalola, Ann Rabson and Andra Faye—invited local cancer patients to join them in the filming. Ann Doyle, Patty Robinson, Sharon Dion Murray, Janice Lancaster, Ann Lusk and Marsha Scott are seen lip-syncing the lyrics. Joe Rodriguez plays the air guitar.

The video also will be shown at Saffire’s final concert, scheduled for Nov. 7 at the University of Mary Washington.

You can see the video here.

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Jim Hall is health reporter at The Free Lance-Star

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