Gift of hair a lifeline to cancer children

It can only be made worse by the extensive and gruelling bouts of chemotherapy and radiography that accompany treatment for the disease.

And then to suffer the loss of your lovely hair as a result of the repeated visits to hospital must be especially hard for a young child to take in or understand.

But that is exactly what Bethan Evans has had to endure during her short life.

Diagnosed two years ago with a rare form of bone cancer Bethan, from the small Mid Wales village of Llangadfan, near Welshpool, has already experienced more pain than most adults would in a lifetime. But it was the loss of her hair which made her condition so obvious whenever she left home.

"Whenever we went out, people would stare shamelessly at Bethan," said her mother, Lynne, 38, a teacher. "And even when they smiled at the same time, it was still hard for her to take.

"She was just a tiny child having to adjust to both feeling dreadful and suddenly becoming an object of curiosity. I wanted her to lead a normal life, but her hair loss made that difficult.

"It wasn't long after Bethan's first bout of chemotherapy that her hair fell out; she woke up one morning and it was all over her pillow, so I said: 'Either we let this itch or we cut it short.'

"I chopped it into a pixie cut and afterwards, Bethan stood by the mirror, attached to her drip, and said: 'Mum, you've done an awful job with that.' It was such a sad sight."

But help was at hand for Bethan in the shape of a donation that's becoming something of a rather heart-warming national phenomenon – a small, real-hair wig, made using hair donated by a young girl, perhaps like Bethan, who had selflessly sacrificed her own locks.

To Bethan it was like gold dust because, as she says with a wide smile, it made her feel "like my old self again — I felt like me".

Increasingly more and more young girls are volunteering to have their hair cut in order to make wigs for children less fortunate that they are.

"It's a wonderful idea — a wonderful gift," said Lynne, who is married to engineer husband Arwel, 39. They have another daughter Amy, 10.

Shortly after Bethan's first bout of chemotherapy, Bethan started to lose her long fair hair.

It was then that Bethan had an appointment for a wig with Peter Murtha of Optima Hair Specialists in Birmingham, who works with Birmingham Children's Hospital and charities such as the Little Princess Trust and Hayley Higginson Trust.

This charity receives more than 1,500 hair donations every month, mostly from children, and provides wigs to children suffering from hair loss. Many recipients have been treated for cancer, while some suffer from alopecia. Each donation has to be at least seven-and-a-half inches long.

"In the past year there has been a significant increase," said Monica Glass, spokeswoman for the charity.

"The donated hair, if acceptable to the manufacturer, is made into wigs for the charity to use. It takes around five or six donations to make just one real-hair wig. The difference they make to a poorly child is immense."

The craze for young children to donate their hair started in the US, where it has been a popular trend for the past decade.

YouTube has tens of thousands of videos on hair donation, one featuring a three-year-old called Emily James having her long, dark hair cut off. Set to music, it has been viewed almost four million times.

But the donations clearly have an impact on the young girls who benefit from them.

Bethan said: "I really loved having my new hair. It made going to school much easier, and I felt more normal."

She's now gone a year without any evidence of her cancer returning and her own hair has grown back. But Bethan still keeps the wig in her bedroom cupboard.

"It meant so much to her that she is still attached to it," said Lynne, who will be forever grateful to the child that gave her own hair to help Bethan.

"It's an incredible thing to do, I know how wonderful it was for Bethan to get her life back."

Youngsters from across Shropshire have been lending their support for the craze for donating hair to youngsters needing wigs after cancer treatment – and they're not all girls.

Izaak Ellis, who lives near Whitchurch and goes to the Bishop Heber High School, said goodbye to his beloved long hair to raise funds for Cancer Research in memory of his nan Beryl. He donated it to the Little Princess Trust.

So did Sophie Leigh, from Muxton, who took inspiration from her brother Michael's battle against two different forms of cancer, to donate 12 inches of her hair.

Ellie Thomas raised more than £450 as well as giving her blonde hair to the trust after taking part in a charity fun day in memory of Lewis Prior. And Megan Arnold had every reason to feel light-headed after having an almighty 17 inches chopped from her locks. Megan said: "I've been wanting to donate my hair since I was eight. Hopefully it will help someone."