A YOUNG fundraiser has smashed their target of money raised after making a donation of their own.
Abby Salisbury, aged nine and from Wokingham, has gone a cut above by donating her hair to the Little Princess Trust and busting through her original target of £200.
While Abby’s hair had grown down to her waist, now she’s rocking the shoulder-length look so that she could donate around a foot of her hair to the charity, raising nearly £800 in total in the process.
Her mum, Becky Salisbury, said: “She was toying with the idea of a haircut, but she’d always been known for her very long hair.
“I told her the story about how, if she wanted to, she could donate to The Princess Trust and how they help children who’ve lost their hair.
“She was interested, and later decided she wanted to do it after she found out she could raise money for them too.”
The Little Princess Trust supports children and young people who experience hair loss by providing real-hair wigs for free.
It helps to give confidence to those undergoing chemotherapy and other cancer treatments, experiencing alopecia, and also funds childhood cancer research across the UK.
As well as taking donations from fundraising, hair can be donated to the charity for the creation of their wigs.
“We made the appointment at the hairdressers,” Ms Salisbury explained, “and shared it with friends and family on Facebook.
“After donations started coming in, I thought I’d better get myself organised, so we set up the Just Giving page.”
Ms Salisbury said that she wasn’t surprised by Abby’s generosity: “She’s very empathetic, and very concerned about the welfare of others.
“She really looks out for her friends, and is often called on to look out for anybody new at school; she’s just a very kind soul.
“And absolutely crazy in other aspects, but very kind.”
And as to how Abby, who was eight at the time, found having short hair for the first time in a long while: “She’s loved it.
“I didn’t realise it would come with extra sass, though– she’s catapulted into teenage-hood in some respects.
“She’s a keen swimmer, so we always had to do her hair before taking part, but now she’s happy that she can do those kinds of things herself.
“She’s already got the thought in her head that she wants to do it again.”
Ms Salisbury said that she was “really proud” of her daughter and that both Abby and her brother were quite taken aback by how much she was able to raise.
Abby Salisbury’s fundraising page can be found via: justgiving.com/fundraising/Becky-Salisbury3
