Very first haircut is for good cause
Phoebe (8) loses long locks but raises £610
A big-hearted Bridge of Allan youngster decided to shed her locks for the first time in aid of a special cause.
Eight-year-old Phoebe Macmillan, who is in Primary Four at the town’s primary school, decided to have her haircut as part of a fundraiser for the Little Princess Trust charity, which provides real hair wigs for children going through cancer treatment.
Phoebe initially hoped to raise £150 from the gesture, but after mum Christina put out a fundraising appeal on social media on Thursday night, the haircutting efforts ended up raising a total sum of £610.
Christina told the Observer: “She has never had her cut and decided a couple of weeks ago that she wanted to have it cut and share it with someone else.
“We’re totally over the moon with the amount raised - it’s such a massive amount of money for an eight-year-old girl.
“She hadn’t had her hair cut because she wanted to keep it to the ground like Rapunzel and people got to know as the girl with the long hair after a while.”
The challenges presented by lockdown meant that it was up to a nervous Christina to show off her hairdressing skills.
But Phoebe was keen to carry on after seeing the stories of some of those supported by the charity and has also vowed to grow her hair in order to donate again to those less fortunate.
Christina added: “I was trying to get her to hold off making the decision until after lockdown because I’m not a hairdresser!
“She got quite emotional watching the videos on the Little Princess Trust website and felt as if she wanted to do something to help out.
“That’s Phoebe’s nature - she’s one of those kids that always wants to hug everyone and she’s been missing her friends throughout all of this.
“She would also dearly love to meet the person who benefits from her hair but that’s probably not going to happen with everything that is going on.
“There have just been lots of lovely people and I’ve been telling people who still want to contribute to donate money to the website because it’s a great cause.”