by Alan Quick

TWO boys from Bow, Thomas and Ben Newcombe, just before Christmas, had their long locks of hair cut for the charity, Little Princess Trust, which creates wigs for children who have lost their hair because of cancer treatment or on occasion because of other illness.

Their mum, Ali, explained: “In the summer of 2014, our family carried out the ice bucket challenge. Thomas then nine and Ben then six each donated £3 of their own money to different causes.

“Afterwards, Thomas decided he wanted to do something else to raise money for charity and seeing advertisements on the television for various charities supporting children with cancer he did some research online (supervised of course) and found the Little Princess Trust.

“Thomas thought that growing his hair was something he could do without help from anyone. A few months later Ben asked if he could join in and grow his own hair as it was a really good idea.”

After 30 months, Thomas’ ponytail had reached more than 13 inches and Ben’s was long enough for a shorter wig at about nine inches.”

Thomas (11) and Ben (9) had their hair cut at Crediton’s Tesco Store at Wellparks.

Natalie Weir from London Town Barbers in Exeter and Liz Follett from Giggle Snips Mobile Barbers donated their time to cut the boys hair and many people visiting the store gave donations and watched as the locks were cut.

The boys were raising money because it costs between £350 and £500 to produce each wig.

Ali said she and her husband, Paul were very proud of their boys and with £268 raised at the Tesco store, added to funds raised on an online donations page, the £615 towards £700 total raised to-date with Gift Aid making the total £746.25.

If you wish to donate you can do so on the mydonate page: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/alisonnewcombe1#.WFEd53IdNzY.email .

Alan Quick