LITTLE Lillie Martin was delighted to say goodbye to her long corn coloured tresses this week.

The seven-year-old from Park South hadn’t had it cut since she was three and was thoroughly fed up with it.

But she was growing it for a good cause as nanny Nicola Martin explained when the Oak Tree Primary School pupil went to Brunette’s in Wood Street to have it all cut off.

In fact for the past two years Lillie has been getting ready to donate it to other children who have lost their own hair through cancer.

“She hates having long hair. She really doesn’t like having it brushed,” said Mrs Martin. “It is just nice to see children thinking of other rather than focussing on themselves.”

She explained: “She was about five and one day out of the blue she said: ‘I’m going to grow my hair for the children that don’t have any.’ It was her decision and she has stuck with it.”

“We don’t know whether something was discussed at school of whether she saw something on TV. We have no idea where it came from.”

“We’re really proud of her. She thinks that’s what you do, you grow your hair for other people that don’t have any.”

Mrs Martin told how Lillie was given a fiver for her cause by an elderly gentleman she met while walking up Victoria Road with her mum. He told her his wife had died of cancer and losing her hair had been the hardest thing for her to bear.

She set herself the target of raising £100 for the Little Princess Trust, but by the time she sat down in the hairdresser’s chair she had managed to garner almost £300 – nearly enough to cover the cost of making a child’s wig.

The charity, launched in 2006, provides real hair wigs to children in the UK and Ireland. It also helps to fund research into the causes of childhood cancers and minimising the effects of chemotherapy on them.