*Please flick through the photo’s for the hair progress pics* 

Lily-Mae’s Story

Our daughter’s name is Lily-Mae and she has known from a young age that she wanted to donate her hair to the Little Princess Trust.

Sadly, Lily-Mae’s cousin, Alfie had terminal cancer and sadly passed away at the age of 9 years old. During his treatment, Alfie began to loose his hair. To support him through this, all the men in our family shaved all their hair off with Alfie. Lily-Mae was only 4 years old at the time, but she understood why everyone had shaved their heads for Alfie & was very keen to shave her hair off for her cousin too.

Due to her young age, we didn’t feel that Lily-Mae fully understood the aftermath of making a choice like that. Although it is so kind, we wanted her to wait until she was fully understanding of the choice. Therefore I suggested that she grew her hair and donated to The Little Princess Trust instead. After explaining that Alfie has all the love, support and help he needs from us already, I explained about the other children who sadly lost their hair like Alfie & what the Little Princess Trust is about. Lily-Mae instantly knew she wanted to grow and donate her hair. At this point (4 years old) Lily-Mae hadn’t ever had a hair cut.

As she got older, she has always remembered her goal and has continued to be passionate about donating to the children, in memory of her cousin. Over the years we discussed it and agreed to give Lily-Mae her very FIRST haircut at the age of 13 years old and donate it to the children at The Little Princess Trust. Lily-Mae wanted to wait until 13 years old because sadly so many children lost their whole childhood years to cancer… so Lily-Mae wanted to donate her hair from her whole childhood years. So, from birth to a 13 year old teenager…Lily-Mae has never had her hair cut. She has grown it for 13 years to donate to the beautiful, strong, amazing children that deserve every little ounce of happiness. Lily-Mae wanted to give them that little ounce of happiness.

The minimum length of hair required for a donation to LPT is 25cm. From scalp to tip, Lily-Mae has exactly 100cm length of hair & she will be cutting and donating around 50cm. She is so proud that she can not only donate to such an amazing cause, but that she is able to donate extra!

We have photo documented her hair growth over the 13 years and it hasn’t always been easy to tame and care for such long hair. There has definitely been a few stressful moments throughout, but we have always known how lucky we are to have healthy hair. We hope whoever receives Lily-Mae’s wig gain their confidence back, because they are beautiful and strong with or without the wig. However, if this wig can put a smile on their face, then it was worth every single day of those 13 years.

Throughout the years, we also discussed the fundraising part of the donation. We discussed about how it costs £700 to make a wig at The Little Princess Trust and we suggested that £700 be our target. As stated on LPT website, £700 will cover the full cost to receive, make and donate a wig to a child with cancer. However, Lily-Mae wanted to be even more kind hearted and wanted to use this opportunity to help her brother too.

Lily-Mae’s brother Declan is 11 years old. He was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease at 6 weeks old. Declan has been through so much in his 11 years, with much more to face in the future. Lily-Mae has always been an amazing and supportive sister & has always been included in Declan’s health journey. Over the years she has wanted to find a way to help donate money to a kidney charity too, in support of her brother.

That’s when she decided to kill to birds with 1 stone. Lily-Mae’s plan is to cut and donate her hair to The Little Princess Trust and hopefully raise £1,000+ in doing so. Then she will donate £700 (and her hair) to the LPT to cover the cost of the wig & use the remaining money to donate to a kidney charity. Go Fund Me ask for a goal amount so we have currently set this to £1,400 (£700 for each charity) However, we are grateful for any amount that we raise, even if we don’t reach the goal.

It’s such a bitter sweet moment to watch Lily-Mae make these choices, stick to them and put her heart into it for her family members who she loves. Now the time has come to cut and donate, it is such a bitter sweet moment.

The proudness we feel is indescribable and we are so unbelievably happy that Lily-Mae finally gets her moment to donate. The circumstances in why this began is so gut wrenchingly sad, but we know her cousin Alfie is beaming with pride watching over her & her brother Declan is feeling so blessed to have her as a sister.

Lily-Mae will be having her very first hair cut in August 2026. Her hair will be put into 4 plaits with 50cm of length and then Lily-Mae, myself, her dad & her brother will all cut a plait each! We are so excited that the time has come. Lily-Mae has been patiently waiting for so many years for this moment to give something back.

For anyone that is able to make any donation (big or small) please do. We will be so grateful for any kindness. It really will mean so much to us all. It is for such an amazing cause and has been 13 years in the making.

We have seen first hand how hard it is for a child to loose their hair amongst everything their going through and we have also seen first hand the difficulties that children with kidney problems go through. Every penny will go towards giving those children their confidence & smiles back, whilst helping towards important research, equipment and support.

We completely understand for those that may not be in a position to be able to donate. We don’t want anyone to leave themselves short, so we thank you anyway.

Please may you all share this Go Fund Me & let’s get those kids some smiles back!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who has already shared, donated and sent lovely words to Lily-Mae. It means more than you’ll ever know ❤️

IMPORTANT INFO

Lily-Mae will be having her hair cut in August. We will update this page along the way.

We will also upload all proofs of the event including:

• Lily-Mae’s haircut

• The hair donation for LPT

• Receipts and proofs of LPT money donation

• Receipts and proofs of Kidney charity money donation.

We chose to receive donations through Go Fund Me as this was the only way to raise money for 2 separate charities in 1 place. A small fee is taken from Go Fund per donation. All info about this is on their website. 

I will keep a paper trail of all sponsors and all receipts of the two charities that it will be donated too. I will upload them to this page and also have them available for anyone that has donated, that would like a copy of the proofs.

We are currently planning to donate the Kidney donation to Kidney Care UK. We have asked Declan’s consultant if she advises a specific Kidney Charity. If she does, then it will be donated to that kidney charity and the details uploaded to this page.

Thank you for reading and supporting us

Love

The Barnes Family