Gainsborough girl donates long hair to The Little Princess Trust for a second time

A kind-hearted Gainsborough girl has donated her long hair to The Little Princess Trust for a second time to help create wigs for young people impacted by cancer.
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Sophia Dannatt, ten, who goes to Frances Olive Anderson School in Lea, first started to grow her hair when she was three years old after seeing an advert on television showing children with leukaemia.

In 2016, aged just five, she had her long hair cut and donated it to The Little Princess Trust and raised money for the charity.

Now, five years on, she has repeated the gesture.

Sophia Dannatt has donated her long hair to The Little Princess TrustSophia Dannatt has donated her long hair to The Little Princess Trust
Sophia Dannatt has donated her long hair to The Little Princess Trust

Sophia’s mum, Nicola Dannatt, said: “When Sophia was three, she saw an advert about a charity asking for donations for children with leukaemia.

“She turned to me and said ‘mummy, why hasn't that girl got any hair?’

“So I told her ‘sometimes children get really poorly and the medicine they have makes their hair fall out’ and she replied, ‘I have a lot of hair mummy, can they have some of mine?’

“From then, even at her age, she was determined to grow it.”

After her first donation, Sophia decided she wanted to grow her hair again so that ‘other children can have hair again and feel happy’.

So earlier this year, as she turned ten, Sophia went for the chop again, as well as helping to raise money for Young Lives vs Cancer.

Nicola said: “Originally she was going to have it cut last year but, with the Covid-19 pandemic, it just never happened.

“During the months that salons were allowed to open in 2020, the diaries were just so busy it was impossible to fit her in.

“But once everything opened up again properly in 2021 we booked her in.

“She had her hair curled after her cut, then had her nails done, as a lovely pamper birthday treat.”

This time round, Sophia has donated 15 inches of hair to The Little Princess Trust and has so far raised nearly £300 for charity.

Morrisons also had a charity bucket in store which helped raise £55 towards her total.

Nicola said: “I'm so incredibly proud of her. She's my little star.And as soon as she had it done she couldn’t wait to show her teachers and friends her new hair do when she started her final year at primary school.”