Little Princess Trust gets donation from Horwich Rapunzel

Olivia Lea, who will be starting her second year at St Catherine’s Primary School in September, had 24cm of her “Rapunzel hair” cut off to help children who have lost their hair through

illness.

Her hair will be donated to the Little Princess Trust along with the £1,000 she raised thanks to help from friends and family who sponsored her.

Olivia’s mum, Nicola, aged 36, an ophthalmic technician at Royal Bolton Hospital, said: “She’s been asking for about a month to have it done. Wanting it cut because it was so

long.

"I was pretty against it but she said there’s a lot of little princesses who don’t have their hair and I can give it to them. I gave in.”

Mobile hairdresser Rosie “Sheep” Shepherd did the deed and was just as worried as Mrs Lea about the big chop.

Mrs Lea, of Catherine Street East in Horwich, said: “She kept pausing the scissors and was worse than me!

"But it suited Olivia straight away.

“All day she loved it and she was so happy with all the sponsors.

"She said, 'I don’t just like it I love it,

'I’m so comfy in bed without a bobble'.”

After her hair was tidied up and curled Olivia asked her mum if she could have it curled everyday for school.

Little Princess Trust makes wigs for children and young people up to the age of 24 who have lost their hair through cancer treatment or another illness.

Olivia first heard about them from her mum’s cousin, Natalie Bibby, a nurse who works on Royal Bolton’s high dependency unit.

Money donated will help pay for the cost of making a wig, which needs up to 10 hair donations to create.

Mrs Lea said: “The trust said it’s £350 to £500 to buy a wig for a child so Olivia kept saying, 'have I got enough for so many wigs now?'”

Olivia is looking forward to going back to school and show off her new hairstyle now she is no longer the girl with the longest hair in the

class.

Mrs Lea said: “They all used to say, 'Olivia you have the longest hair like Rapunzel in Tangled'.”