Twin helps cancer-surviving brother return to normalcy, donates hair through surgery

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- - Alex Ford was diagnosed with brain cancer at age 12. He had a tumor removed, braved 30 rounds of radiation and underwent daily chemotherapy. Somehow, he beat the disease that was killing him but it left him with a constant reminder of his battle.

"There's a lot of looks like, 'Hey, there's that kid that's in college. He's already balding.' And people assume there's something wrong with you," said Ford.

To fix the problem, a hair transplant was always an option. Ford just needed to find a donor.

"The answer to that question to my patients is, 'you know if you had an identical twin you could probably do that,' " said Doctor Glenn Charles of the Charles Medical Group in Boca Raton.

Dr. Charles said for hair to grow, the cells have to be identical. Luckily for Alex, he has Austin his identical twin brother.

"It's yet another chance for us to return to a bit of normalcy. We can be twins again," said Austin Ford.

Using cutting-edge technology, Dr. Charles operates a robot that picks out root hairs that will be transplanted.

"It's almost like a little hand, power drill that's drilling out individual hairs," said Charles.

Having twins of his own, Dr. Charles was touched by Alex's story and donated his time. Dr Charles, along with his team, spent hours picking out root hairs from Austin. The team then preserved the hair and then spent the next couple of hours transplanting the hair into Alex's head.

"I consider it that he's giving me back what I gave him. We have the running joke that he split off of me," said Alex.

The surgery is not guaranteed and both still face multiple operations.

The twin brothers though feel Alex is already a living, walking miracle and has at least one more miracle in him.