Four-year-old hopes first haircut helps charity

A four-year-old girl is hoping her first-ever haircut raises enough money to pay for wigs for children suffering with cancer.

Heidi, who lives in Warwick, is due to have her first trim before she starts school in September, but is using the opportunity to help The Little Princess Trust, by having her cut sponsored.

So far she has raised more than £1,400, enough to cover the cost of making two wigs, having them styled and donated to a child who had lost their hair through medical treatment or disease.

Her mum, Lydia, a former hairdresser, said Heidi's hair would also go into making the wigs when she got it cut at the end of February.

"She said she wanted a haircut and she said she wanted it short like mine, so I thought 'this would be a really good opportunity to donate the hair and raise a little bit of money'," she added.

The Little Princess Trust, which is based in Hereford, was founded in 2005 by Wendy Tarplee-Morris, following the death of her daughter Hannah and marked its 20th anniversary last year.

They make real hair wigs for children and young people up to the age of 24, who have lost their own hair through cancer or other diseases.

They also fund research into childhood cancers.

Lydia said her daughter was born with a full head of hair and they had let it grow, without cutting it, ever since.

"It costs £700 to make and style a wig for an individual child - that was our original fundraising target and we were absolutely blown away that Heidi raised that in a day," she said.

She added she was hoping to get closer to £2,000 by the time the haircut happened.

However, Lydia said her daughter did not fully appreciate what she was doing with her hair and charity work.

"I think she's just taking it in her stride," her mother said.

"But what I'm going to do is print off all the comments, because she's had some lovely comments with the donations, so that when she's older, she can understand a bit more about it.

"Then she can have a little read through those."

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