FOR most people, surviving a triple heart attack in their thirties would rank as the most traumatic medical experience of their lives.

But for Sally Bee, what happened next affected her on a more personal level.

“If I chose not to speak about it, no-one would need to know I’ve got a dodgy ticker,” said Sally. “But losing your hair really changes the way you feel as a woman.

“When a girl is having a bad hair day, she’s having a bad day.”

Her medical-induced alopecia has led Sally, 48, to team up with wig supplier Trendco, based in Hove, to de-stigmatise wigs for the one in four women who will experience some kind of hair loss in their lives.

Sally, who is appearing on the Lorraine breakfast show on ITV throughout January, was having a picnic with her family in 2004 when she started to feel agonising pain in her chest.

What doctors initially diagnosed as indigestion was confirmed as a heart attack following a second cardiac episode. Later the same week she had a third attack and doctors advised her husband that she would not survive the night.

It transpired that Sally, who lives in Stratford-upon-Avon, had suffered what is called a “spontaneous coronary artery dissection”, a sudden unravelling of heart arteries which is so traumatic it is almost always diagnosed post-mortem.

There are only a few hundred recorded cases and fewer than 30 survivors worldwide.

Miraculously Sally lived, which she puts down to her healthy lifestyle and diet and her health has continued to improve.

She shared her story with the media, and became a nutritionist, food writer, and TV presenter, championing the healthy food she credits with saving her life.

But until last year, she never revealed that her ordeal had affected her hair as well as her heart.

She said: “I lost half of my hair pretty much straight away, I think it was probably part shock and partly the medications.

“So it has been a little thin for ten years or so.

“But last summer, the big hair loss happened.

“I was told that the beta blockers I’m on killed off the hair follicles.”

The additional hair loss made a serious impression on Sally.

“I have medically-induced alopecia and I know my hair is unlikely to grow back, and it really changes the way you feel.

“I’m a confident girl but I was losing my confidence. I was hiding it from people and from my family.

“I really felt horrible. When a girl is having a bad hair day, she’s having a bad day. Your hair should be your crowning glory.”

That led to her first contact with Trendco, the fifty-year-old Hove-based business which specialises in wig and hairpiece supply.

Sally said: “I had found a small shop near where I live and there were all these wigs and no-one to ask. I was very uncomfortable.”

After seeing Sally courageously talk about her hair loss on the Lorraine show, Trendco managing director Lynne Harris got in touch and invited Sally for a consultation in their Birmingham store.

Lynne explained: “We got in touch and she went to our Birmingham shop and she was blown away by the service we offered so now she’s an ambassador for us.”

Sally said: “I’m a brand ambassador for a good reason.

“I was a blithering mess when I went into Trendco, and the girl I spoke to literally changed my life.

“She explained everything to me and I went out of the store a different person.

“I was almost happy to be wearing a wig.

“All the girls that work for Lynne really have a passion for it, and given how vulnerable you are when you go in that’s exactly what you need.”

Trendco, in Western Road in Hove, was opened by Keith Forshaw in 1965 and is now one of the UK’s largest suppliers of wigs and hairpieces.

The business has seven salons across the country but the 20-strong team in Hove run the wholesale operation which distributes wigs to more than 1,000 outlets nationwide.

Although originally a fashion-based business, more than 80 per cent of their business is now focused on hair loss, providing wigs for women undergoing therapy or who suffer alopecia.

Lynne said: “We are very excited to have Sally on board with Trendco.

“Sally is a beautiful confident lady and to have someone like her inspiring women that it’s OK to wear wigs and to not be ashamed is absolutely wonderful.

Her positivity is just so great.”

Throughout 2016, Sally will be speaking at seminars and group sessions in Hove focused on inspiring women with hair loss to embrace their condition.

She said: “What I decided to do is tell everyone about it and then treat my necessity as an accessory. So I treat it like jewellery and handbags.

“Sometimes I’m a blonde, sometimes I’m a redhead, sometimes I’m a brunette, and I can choose my hair to match my outfit.

“And my husband likes it too.

“It’s a question of embracing it not hiding from it. We have to de-demonise the wig and encourage women not to be shy about it.”

Sally will be speaking at the Hove hair loss support group on April 21.