'Hair and Hope' for young people with cancer

Student, Sonal Sumaria, was delighted to welcome to the College, Wendy Tarplee-Morris (Founder) and Phil Brace (Chief Executive Officer) of the charity, the Little Princess Trust (LPT) recently.


Picture above: Sonal is holding an LPT Teddy bear and standing in between Wendy (left) and Phil (right)

LPT is a charity that supplies real hair wigs, free of charge to children and young people who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment and other conditions.

Sonal had invited her guests to give a talk to staff and students about their Charity and the important work it does.

Sonal gave a short and witty introduction and explained that she herself had previously donated her hair and had also volunteered for the LPT. This had prompted her to organise a sponsored haircut event, for her Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).

Students were interested to hear from Phil and Wendy about how the Little Princess Trust was founded through tragedy, and how it had started in 2005 supplying just one wig and today provides over 2000 wigs annually to those in need, along with funding research into childhood cancers.

LPT receives 70,000 hair donations every year from 126 different countries. 90% of the wigs made in the world are produced by China but when Covid hit it was difficult to source them which prompted more wig making in the UK. Now 10% of the LPT wigs are made in the UK with some even being made locally in Hereford.

The Charity’s long-term objective is to give ‘Hair and Hope’. ‘Hair’ referring to the provision of wigs and ‘Hope’ referring to the funding they are providing for research into kinder and more effective cancer treatments for children.

LPT is always looking for hair donations and in recent times, high profile personalities such as Harry Styles and the Princess of Wales have donated their hair. Their hair is anonymised but the fact that they have donated, has raised the profile of the Charity.

Talking about the wig-making process, Wendy explained that they particularly need donations of long hair, as 3-4 inches of hair is lost in the knotting process. The wigs are produced in 13 different natural colours and one wig is made up using 16 different hair donations.

Wendy passed round samples of the different types and colours of hair along with one of the fine mesh caps, explaining how individual hairs are hand-tied into the fine lace mesh. The whole process takes around 60 hours for one wig. It’s incredibly labour intensive which means the wigs are expensive to buy - the purchase price is in the region of £2k - £2.5k, but, through LPT, every wig is gifted to someone who needs it.

LPT works with Salon’s nationally so that a recipient can have a wig fitted, styled and coloured to suit them, near to where they live.

The Little Princess Trust continues to develop and Phil talked around its future objectives, which include:

- increasing awareness to reach more young people who need the service.
- increasing funding for research.
- continuing to keep supports costs low (7.5p in the £1 on support costs).
- to breathe new life into the wig-making craft in the UK.

At the end of the presentation, a number of interesting questions came from the floor including: How is hair stored? Are wigs only supplied to recipients in the UK? Does demand outstrip supply? Two students also revealed they had been recipients of an LPT wig during their childhood.

Pictured below are students Rachel and Izzy. Rachel (left) was the recipient of an LPT wig as a child. Izzy (right) who is supporting Sonal's efforts



We are hugely grateful to Wendy and Phil for taking the time to talk with our students and for giving such an informative presentation on the wonderful work of the Little Princess Trust.

Finally, good luck to Sonal and RNC staff members – Flea, Lisa and Nina – who are taking part in a sponsored haircut on Saturday 11 March. Their efforts will raise much needed funds for RNC, with hair being donated to the Little Princess Trust. To donate visit Sonal's JustGiving page here.

Pictured below L-R: Lisa, Wendy, Phil, Sonal, Nina and Flea