Two eight-year-old girls from West Lothian have raised over £700 for a cancer research charity.
The pair of young friends, Lily Tiger Townend and Grace Clare McIntyre, raised £705 for the Little Princess Trust by growing their hair during lockdown and then having it cut.
Annie Townend, proud mum of Lily, said: “The two of them got the idea into their heads at just the beginning of the pandemic to cut their hair and donate it to charity.
“But Grace’s hair wasn’t quite long enough yet and they had decided they were going to do it together and of course hairdressers weren’t open for the longest time.”
Grace and Lily, pupils at St Joseph’s RC Primary School and Linlithgow Bridge Primary School respectively, blew their initial modest target of £108 out of the water.
This month, the girls finally got their haircut after two years of growth at FI Hair in Linlithgow to donate to the trust to make real-hair wigs for children losing their hair to cancer or other conditions.
Lily donated around 12 inches of her hair while Grace wasn’t far behind with 10 inches of her hair.
All of it will go towards crafting authentic wigs for other children.
Annie added: “The girls brought up the idea themselves. They must have seen it on Tiktok or Youtube.
“To be honest we didn’t take much notice at first. You know what kids are like, they say they’re going to do something else 100 times a day.”
The wigs go to children living with life-changing medical conditions free of charge, and help to restore their confidence and identity.
All funds donated to the Little Princess Trust go towards funding cancer research.
The trust is entirely funded by community fundraisers like Lily and Grace.
Annie concluded: “Lily kept saying to everyone that she was growing her hair out for charity. Lily’s hair got really long and my sister the hairdresser was always asking to cut it but she kept saying ‘nope I’m growing it out’.
“They were both super nervous leading up to it but got really excited on the day - they ended up getting pampered!
“The girls are so proud of themselves now for sticking it out and managing to raise over £700 for the trust with their wee fundraiser.”
You can donate to the girls fundraiser and support their cause by going to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nicolle-henderson.
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