Beaming recipients show off their new wigs as kind donors reveal why they donated hair
How lockdown locks can help sick children smile again: Beaming recipients show off their new wigs as kind donors reveal why they donated hair for young cancer sufferers
- The Little Princess Trust provides more than 2,000 wigs a year for children
- It hopes the wigs will provide confidence to youngsters living with an illness
- Mum reveals she collected hair from her daughter’s pillow to stop her seeing it
By Jill Foster for the Daily Mail
Published: 17:21 EDT, 21 July 2020 | Updated: 20:08 EDT, 21 July 2020
When Flo Morrison began to lose her hair, her mum Nikki would collect it from her pillow each morning to stop her seeing it.
Diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2018, the five-year-old required gruelling chemotherapy sessions and blood transfusions, resulting in lengthy stays in hospital.
As Flo lost more and more of her hair, Nikki told her that a person’s appearance doesn’t define them.
A positive little girl, Flo started wearing hats, headscarves and princess wigs from shops online. But one morning as they crossed the school playground, some comments made Nikki determined to seek help for her little girl.
Teiva Collins, 10, can enjoy her new locks thanks to the Little Princess Trust, after she lost her hair following a leukemia diganosis
‘I was walking Flo out of school at break time and the rest of the school were in the playground,’ says Nikki, from Bedfordshire.
‘In the 20 seconds it took for us to cross the playground I heard “she’s bald”, “is that a boy in a dress?”, “look at her”. Flo heard these comments and flinched at each one, cowering into me. She did not say a thing.’
Though Nikki did not believe the children were being unkind, rather ‘doing what kids do best and saying the first thing that comes into their head’, the episode sparked her into action.
The charity she turned to in order to make Flo smile again was the Little Princess Trust, an organisation that provides more than 2,000 wigs a year to help boost the confidence of children and young adults affected by chemotherapy or alopecia.
But these wigs have something special about them; rather than the synthetic wigs Flo had bought from party shops, they are made from the real hair of thousands of generous donors.
Hair must be at least 12 inches in length, and it can take as many as 14 donations to make one wig, which costs £550 to make.
Flo Morrison, six, is another youngster to benefit from the charity’s donations. Flo’s mother used to take her hair from her pillow each morning to keep the youngster from seeing it
With so many of us left with longer hair than usual, the charity is asking you to donate your lockdown locks to a good cause.
‘Lockdown had a significant impact on our charity when, in order to follow government guidelines, we stopped accepting hair donations,’ says chief executive Phil Brace.
‘But during the unprecedented circumstances we challenged our amazing supporters to join our “let it grow” campaign to help us meet the demand for longer real hair wigs.’
Hundreds responded and they are now starting to harness their donations. Nikki knows just how much a wig means to a child who has lost their own hair.
After contacting the trust, she and Flo were put in touch with the wig referrals team, who took measurements and looked at pictures of Flo, whose hair is naturally dark and curly, to come up with a match.
Sophie Skellett-Broome, 13, lives with mum Victoria, 40, a dog groomer, and father Edward, 44, a mechanic, in Rutland. She donated 15in of hair. Mum Victoria says: When Sophie’s granny was diagnosed with cancer in May, Sophie wanted to do something to help. We knew what to expect with the trust because she has done it once before, in 2017. Watching her have it cut was very moving — not just because I was seeing my little girl lose her lovely locks but for the reasons she was doing it — and I admit I cried. She has raised more than £1,000. We’re all so proud of her. Sophie says: I’m very lucky to have had such long hair and to be able to grow it — I could never imagine not having the choice. I like helping people. My school friends and family have all helped me raise money. I hope that by donating my hair, it inspires others to do the same.
‘But Flo wanted it as long and straight as possible,’ says Nikki. Less than two hours later, she left with flowing golden locks.
‘The hair gives children confidence, it gives them pride in their appearance, it creates a lasting smile, it brings happiness on the darkest of days,’ says Nikki.
‘What the trust is doing is providing our child warriors with so much more than just a wig.’
Flo, now six, is now in the maintenance phase of treatment, which doctors hope will end in Octoberand her own hair has started to grow back.
But her family say they will forever be grateful to the ‘kind, selfless souls’ who donated hair.
Amie Cooper, 31, was inspired to donate 12 inches of her hair to the trust when the hairdresser’s reopened this month.
‘My mum had breast cancer and went through radiotherapy and so did my mother-in-law, who started losing her hair when she began chemotherapy,’ says Amie.
‘She shaved it all off in the end and it brought it home to me how people’s confidence can be affected by hair loss during treatment. It struck me how much harder it must be for a child.’
Jiselle Dias, seven, lives with her banker parents Jouelle, 40 and Steve, 38, and her three-year-old sister Shanelle in South Croydon, London. She donated 14.5in of hair. Mum Jouelle says: This is the second time Jiselle has donated her long hair. In 2017 a close friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer and it made an impact on Jiselle, who was only five then. She donated 14in of hair and raised £572 in sponsorship. This time, she donated 14.5in. Friends and family have donated more than £460 to the charity. I couldn’t be more proud. Jiselle says: I hope I can make other children feel better about themselves and help stop the p
Mother-of-two Mei Ling Reddaway, 40, happily sacrificed 15 inches of her hair for those who need it so desperately.
‘As a mother, I can’t begin to imagine what parents go through when their child has cancer and donating my hair seems such a small gesture,’ she says.
One child who knows just how hard it can be is Teiva Collins.
When Teiva, now ten, was diagnosed with leukaemia in May last year, the first tearful words she uttered to her mum Dawn were: ‘Will I lose my hair, Mummy?’
‘I had to tell her that, yes, she would and that it would happen almost as soon as she began aggressive chemotherapy the same week,’ says Dawn, 42, a photographer, who is married to Piers, 48, a project manager.
They have two older children aged 15 and 13. Dawn, from Hampshire, chopped her daughter’s long, blonde locks into a bob to prepare her for having less hair — but soon after that Teiva bravely asked her mum to shave it all off.
Terri Meech, 26, is a credit controller for a human resources company. She lives with her partner Ben, 27, an electrician in Wigan. She donated 12in of hair. She says: I’d thought about donating my hair in the past but assumed that if you dyed it, it wasn’t possible. Then I saw on social media that a woman with blonde highlights had donated her hair. I love the thought that by doing this I’m helping someone else. I give blood regularly and three years ago I even donated my eggs to help infertile couples — a gruelling process. By comparison, donating my hair was a snip! It does feel strange — not to mention light — now it’s so short. It’s bizarre to think that in the future someone could be wearing my hai
Dawn reassured her that she was beautiful with or without hair but quickly became aware of people staring at her little girl.
‘The trust have been wonderful,’ says Dawn. ‘After measuring Teiva up, a blonde wig bearing an uncanny resemblance to her own hair arrived.
She also has a glamorous pink wig. Although Teiva now has a couple of inches of re-growth, her treatment won’t finish until June next year.
And it’s not just little girls who can benefit from your donations — boys and young men are just as affected by hair loss, as 24-year-old Callum Boyd knows only too well.
Amie Cooper, 31, was inspired to donate 12 inches of her hair to the trust when the hairdresser’s reopened this month. ‘My mum had breast cancer and went through radiotherapy and so did my mother-in-law, who started losing her hair when she began chemotherapy,’ says Amie. ‘She shaved it all off in the end and it brought it home to me how people’s confidence can be affected by hair loss during treatment. It struck me how much harder it must be for a child.’
When he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma aged 21, a nurse told him that chemotherapy would lead to him losing his hair.
‘My mum and me were sitting down in a room with a nurse and ran through every possible side effect that could happen as a result of my six-month treatment course: nausea, fatigue, risk of heart and lung damage, severely reduced immunity, infertility, nerve damage and hair loss,’ he says.
‘Without any real comment from the nurse or discussion with me, the words “Not Applicable” were written beside “Wig Referral”.
‘It was almost as if someone else had made the decision on my behalf that the effect chemo might have on my appearance wasn’t important to me.’
Then the Teenage Cancer Trust put him in touch with the Little Princess Trust.
‘Getting a wig fitted and styled helps to bring back some sort of normality and boosts your selfesteem,’ he says.
Having finished his treatment last year, Callum is now encouraging other young men — and boys — to get in touch with the trust.
So next time you go to the hairdresser, it’s worth considering if your haircut could put a smile back on the face of a sick child.
For more information on donating hair please see littleprincesses.org.uk.
