Almost four years after my mum died from a rare form of cancer, I’m set to become a “superhairo” by donating more than 12 inches of hair to The Little Princess Trust.

The charity makes real hair wigs, free of charge, for children and young people who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment. It costs the charity £550 to create a wig, including styling and fitting for the eventual recipient.

It’s a fitting tribute to my mum Irene Swale, a retired nursing sister who’d spent her career working at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

As a child I was aware that I was lucky to be healthy and that some of the children mum looked after had lost their hair because of their medical conditions or treatment. Donating my hair in her memory seems a fitting tribute given that mum looked after so many poorly children. Even more so as one of the last meaningful conversations we’d had when she was in hospital was mum insisting that if she had to have chemotherapy she’d shave her hair off before it fell out.

Mum had Waldenstrom’s Lymphoplasmacytic Lymphoma, a rare form of Leukaemia which was only formally diagnosed after her death in April 2019. It affects around 350 – 400 people a year in the UK. In the US it has an incidence rate of only three in a million.

Mum had several blood transfusions while she was in hospital awaiting a diagnosis and so I’d considered donating my blood to help others but was unable to as my blood didn’t flow fast enough. I then found out about the Little Princess Trust making wigs for children and decided to grow my hair to donate instead. It’s now long enough to donate the 12 inches preferred by the charity. It’ll be a real weight off my shoulders once it’s cut as my hair is thick and heavy.

I’ll be having my hair cut on April 6 by my hairdresser friend, Debbie Edward-Hughes, owner of Salon 103 in Wallasey.

We’d had Debbie on standby to cut mum’s hair but unfortunately, she never came home. The morning she died one of the nurses checked which way her hair should be brushed, which was a lovely personal touch.

Hair for many people is an important part of who they are and a form of expression. That’s why the work of the Little Princess Trust is so important. I was always changing my hair when I was a child – from a short crop to a bob, to long and straight or the ultimate 80s hairdo, a perm. I can only imagine how devastating it could be for a young child to lose their hair.

Mum used to joke that instead of following the trend for older women having a blue rinse, I’d have a pink rinse. So once my hair’s been cut, I’m going to have it dyed pink.

To find out more about The Little Princess Trust go to https://www.littleprincesses.org.uk/