The celebrity clients of dale hair stylist Dennie Pasion are rallying to her aid as she attempts to raise enough money for stem cell treatment overseas after developing Parkinson’s Disease. Martin Paul met her
A STYLIST to the stars’ public appeal to raise cash for ground-breaking stem cell treatment for Parkinson’s disease has garnered an international response.
Photographers and clients that Dennie Pasion has worked with across more than four decades have responded to her online funding appeal from as far as Las Vegas, the Middle East and Africa.
She has now raised almost £3,000 towards the £25,000 she needs to receive therapy, currently under clinical trials, in Serbia.
Ms Pasion, who has helped style the locks of former PM Tony Blair and model-turned-motorsport-racer Jodie Kidd and now lives in Gainford, waited more than eight months to see a neurosurgeon after developing symptoms for Parkinson’s Disease.
She said: “They expedited it because it had got really bad. I got to see a neurologist at Darlington Memorial Hospital and she put me on medication to see how it goes.
“Now I can wash my hair and I have got co-ordination with my hands and I can brush my teeth – simple things like that. Suddenly I can write. That was huge.”
However, she likened the medication Levodopa to a band-aid because it does not halt the disease.
Ms Pasion said: “So two years down the road I could be in a situation where it is worse, or I could go ten years like this.
“But with the stem cell treatment, the cells find each other and they repair and fix the damage, if you are able to take it. I have seen videos of people who have been to the clinic and you see the results immediately, but it is a gamble.”
Some of the support she has received dates back to people she worked with more than 40 years ago.
She said: “I’ve worked with photographers way back in Las Vegas like Jerry Metellus and he rounded up people that we knew together.
“I first moved there in 1984 and then I left in 1994. I worked for magicians Siegfried and Roy for many years.
“They were a great pair and I worked with them for several years. I would do their shows and all of their photoshoots. It was an amazing time.
“Roy grew his hair long and had braids put in to look like a warrior and Siegfried had a fluffy, kind of Farah Fawcett thing going on, so when they ran out on stage their hair would kind of fly.”
She recalled how Roy once wanted his hair to be gold-leafed, but the stylist refused saying it would cause damage. The performer got another stylist to do it, but it burned his hair.
Ms Pasion said: “He was really embarrassed that we had fought and it was quite funny. But I loved him and I don’t think I’ve worked for people who were as exciting as Siegfried and Roy and how they broke boundaries.”
Another fond memory is of Roy telling her that he had been invited to take his tigers to the London Palladium for a performance in front of the Queen.
She recalled: “But he said, ‘I’m not taking my tigers and putting them in a cage, so I sent a ticket to the Queen so she could come here’.”
Others she helped style during her time in Las Vegas were members of the Cirque de Soleil and dancers from Moulin Rouge shows. Later she would work with famed photographer David LaChapelle in Miami.
Ms Pasion said: “He was probably the most famous photographer I ever worked for.”
Her work took her across to the Middle-East and later South Africa before she returned to England just after Covid lockdown restrictions were lifted and began to show symptoms of Parkinsons.
People can contribute to the fundraiser by visiting gofundme.com and searching for Dennie Pasion.
