A five-year-old girl has had 13 inches lobbed off her hair to make a wig for a child recovering from cancer treatment.
Kind-hearted Evie Bracken, a reception class pupil at Hacton Primary School in Hornchurch, has donated her locks to the Little Princess Trust that provides real hair wigs.
She heard about children losing their hair after chemotherapy and asked her dad: “Can I get my hair cut, so a sick little girl can have hair again?”
Her father Daniel, a Newham school teacher, put her in touch with the organisation that gives wigs free to youngsters who have lost their own hair through treatment or other conditions.
Evie has also raised £2,400 in the process with her dad’s online JustGiving page.
“This is typical of Evie,” Daniel said. “She is exceptionally kind and caring, knowing she is helping make others happy.”
Evie is the granddaughter of Deputy Lieutenant Nick Bracken, the King’s representative in Havering, who is also the former Met Police Newham borough commander.
Nick’s role nowadays is promoting the work of Havering’s uniformed and voluntary services, faith groups and charities and also being president of East London Rugby Club based in West Ham.
He said proudly: “Evie heard about people donating hair to make wigs for seriously ill children and wanted to give some of her own hair to a sick child to make them better.”
It costs on average £700 to make one wig — so Evie’s family feel that “every penny raised is doing something good”. Wellwishers can donate to Daniel Bracken’s page on the justgiving.com website.
The Little Princess Trust also receives “tens of thousands of hair donations” from supporters like Evie every year and encourages supporters to keep growing until they have at least 12 inches of plaited hair, clean and dry, male or female.
It has provided 15,000 wigs to children and young people up to age 24 who need them with hair loss after treatment.
The trust has committed £23 million since 2016 to fund 128 research projects and clinical trials, working with the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group, in its mission eventually to make sure no child dies from cancer.
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