‘It’s for my little princess’
We meet the mum who set up a charity providing real hair wigs to children affected by cancer in memory of her own little girl who tragically passed away
Hannah Tarplee was a typical, happy little four-year-old girly girl when her parents found a lump in her tummy.
“She’d barely been poorly at all and was a very healthy girl,” says Mum Wendy. Once they headed to the doctors to put their minds at ease, however, the family received the devastating news that Hannah had a kidney tumour.
Immediately, treatment began including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, all of which took its toll on the whole family. But one thing that had an especially big impact on little Hannah was losing her lovely hair.
“Like many little girls, Hannah’s hair was a big part of her identity and so it was very difficult to explain to someone as young as her why she was losing it. Seeing a child with a bald head is obviously a very visual sign that they’re poorly. I’d often see when we went out on the days Hannah felt well that she’d be skipping along and then someone would give her a sympathetic look and it would bring her spirits down again.”
Eager to do anything to help, Wendy and Hannah’s dad Simon searched for a wig that Hannah could wear during her treatment, but found a real gap in what was out there. “The NHS provides a very cheap, synthetic wig, but we wanted something that was human hair so it looked realistic and found that was really hard to
source.” Eventually, they found a supplier and bought a lovely wig that helped put a spring back in Hannah’s step, especially when she went to birthday parties or had visitors.
“At the time we said to ourselves, there are so many charities around to help with various aspects of cancer but if we ever get the opportunity, we’d really like to help with provision of
‘Like many little girls Hannah’s hair was a big part of her identity. It was hard to explain why she was losing it’
wigs as we’d seen first-hand what a difference it could make,” she says.
Wendy and Simon had envisaged that this might happen once Hannah recovered but, tragically, she passed away in 2006.
Straight after, parents of the school Hannah had attended rallied to raise money in her memory for any charity or cause Wendy and Simon wanted to donate towards. With a few hundred pounds in the fund, they decided what they wanted to do most with the money was to pay for a child affected by cancer to be given a beautiful real hair wig, which they did. But as that first child proudly stepped out with a full head of hair, donations continued to flood in to Wendy and Simon and they decided to start a charity supplying wigs to children who have lost their hair through cancer treatment – and so The Little Princess Trust was born.
Twelve years on and the Trust has given away more than 6,000 real hair wigs to sick children whose lives have been made that bit brighter at what is the most challenging time many families may ever face. The wigs, which come in all different colours and styles, are made from real human hair donated by supporters, who may simply donate the results of a big haircut or do a full head shave. Over the years The Little Princess Trust has received donations of hair from people from all walks of life, including the Duchess of Cambridge who donated some of her locks earlier this year. They particularly need longer hair donations, and a new campaign is enouraging potential donors to grow their hair to a length longer than 10in before cutting it.
Once the hair is received, The Little Princess Trust works with companies and salons to make and style a wig that is as special to the child as possible.
“We get such wonderful feedback from families who say what a huge difference it’s made to them and that makes me feel incredibly proud. I know from my own experience how much parents are dealing with, so it is very humbling that they take the time to sit down and write us a card or letter,” says Wendy.
Another aspect of the charity’s work Wendy is particularly proud of is the money they’ve started donating towards research into the causes of children’s cancers and investigating kinder, less toxic forms of effective treatment.
“To date, we’ve funded 27 hand-selected research projects that will, hopefully, contribute to our wigs maybe not being required one day.”
In the meantime, however, Wendy has dreams of helping as many children as possible both in the UK and in other countries. “The work of The Little Princess Trust is a huge legacy for Hannah and when you step back you realise how much has been achieved and it’s quite unbelievable. I’m now really excited at what we can do, both supporting research and helping children going through treatment now,” says Wendy.