Hair apparent! Kate gives locks to charity
KATE Middleton is supporting child cancer patients – by donating her hair to a charity that makes wigs for sufferers.
She made the decision after her hairdresser Joey Wheeler cut off 18cm from her usual length four months ago.
It is thought an aide secretly sent her locks under a false name to the charity, believed to be the Little Princess Trust.
The group makes wigs from real hair for children who have lost their own through chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
A source said: ‘Four months ago Joey persuaded her it was time to take off some of her hair; he said it was just getting too long. While he was snipping away the idea came to her of doing some good with it rather than throwing it away.
‘She mentioned it to Joey, who thought it was a brilliant idea. It was sent using someone else’s name so the trust didn’t know it was from a royal source, just it was from a female donor in the Kensington area [of London].’
The Little Princess Trust was started by the parents of Hannah Tarplee, who died aged five in 2005. Hannah from Hereford in the English Midlands was diagnosed with a Wilms’ tumour, a type of kidney cancer, in 2004. A side-effect of treatment was losing her hair.
Each wig requires ten donations of hair to create, because a large amount is lost in the specialist knotting process.
The source told the Sunday Express: ‘It’s lovely to think somewhere a little girl is happily wearing a wig made from a real princess’s hair.’