👑💜 Em's 30th birthday - Donating our hair to the Little Princess Trust 💜 👑 

On Friday 14th July, Emma would have been celebrating her 30th birthday. More than anything we wanted to make this day super special and do something positive which will hopefully be able to help somebody else. We both told Emz how one day we would love to be able to grow and donate our hair and no other day seems more perfect than on our beautiful girls very special birthday 💫 

For the last 4 years, me and mum have been growing our hair to be able to donate to the amazing Little Princess Trust. Me and mum will be each donating between 12 and 15 inches of our hair  💇🏼‍♀️  💇🏻‍♀️

The Little Princess Trust provides wigs for children and young people aged up to 24 years old who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment or other heart-breaking medical conditions.

When Em was diagnosed again with Ovarian cancer in early 2019, she had to undergo chemotherapy treatment. Sadly, due to this chemotherapy type (paclitaxel and carboplatin), side effects included hair loss. Although this treatment was going to be potentially lifesaving, Emma was faced with the heart-breaking reality of losing her beautiful long hair, which she loved so much 💔

I reached out to the Little Princess Trust for support and regarding receiving a potential wig despite Emma being 25 and sadly just over the threshold mark. From the moment they got back in touch they were so supportive, and their generosity is something I will never ever forget. They were so kindly able to still provide us a wig and this is something that I had reached out for as a surprise for Em. When I told her she was absolutely over the moon and this meant so so so much to her, and to all of us.

From that moment, Em decided that before she lost her own hair due to the treatment side effects, she would also cut her own hair to donate to the charity.

The Little Princess trust has selected hair salons whereby they stock their wigs which prevents long travelling for a wig fitting to make the process as easy and straightforward as possible.

Emma was able to choose from a wide selection of real hair wigs which were available in a range of colours, lengths, and sizes. This variety meant she was able to pick a wig that was very similar (almost identical) to her own hair. As the hair quality is so amazing it also meant that Em was even able to get some extra added coloured highlights put into the wig by our amazing hairdresser, Katie 💖

Having a real hair wig that was almost identical to her own hair meant so much to Em and so much to us as we were able to see so clearly just how much of a positive impact this had, and how much happiness this brought to Em. Seeing her smile and with happiness during the worst times meant more to us than anything in the world.

Hair donations are used to help children and young people experiencing the devastating effects of hair loss. Our hair is a massive part of our identity, and this is something we often take for granted having massively. Being able to have a wig can have a hugely positive effect on mental health and make you still feel like “you” during the most traumatic times.

The charity encourages all supporters to keep growing hair so that donations can be a minimum of 12 inches (30cm) long.

 💜 It can take up to 16 individual donations to make one wig.

💜 It costs on average £700 to provide one wig to one individual. This covers the making, fitting, and styling of the wig. This has risen substantially over the last 18 months due to various aspects of the wig-making process.

💜 On top of the hair donations to enable the wigs to even be possible, the Little Princess Trust still desperately needs financial donations to fund the making, fitting, and styling. 

💜 The charity has no specialist paid fundraisers and relies on the support of the public to pay for its free wig service and that’s why donations are so deeply appreciated to keep this service free for those receiving the wigs.

“Hair and Hope”

Since 2016, thanks to the efforts of fantastic fundraisers, the Little Princess Trust has also been able to start funding pioneering academics and institutions leading the way in researching new & better treatments for paediatric cancers. An area where there is so much work that desperately needs investment. The charity has now committed more than £21 million across over 100 projects covering all childhood cancers.

The Little Princess Trust is striving to improve patient outcomes through access to new treatments through clinical trials as well as improving existing treatments. They are working incredibly hard to identify innovative and impactful ways to improve survival and reduce the effects of treatment. With the mission to invest in the right areas to fill some of these funding gaps. Providing real hair wigs is at the charity's heart but also supports the development of less aggressive and less toxic cancer treatments.

The charity has now provided over 15,000 wigs to children and young people with hair loss. Any donations will make a massive difference to this charity to ensure they can continue to help even more children and young people.

We know first-hand just how amazing being able to receive a wig can be and we know that our hair donation will mean so much more to somebody else. ❤️