A NORTHWICH support worker has had 19 inches of her hair cut off in a bid to raise awareness of childhood cancer.

Mother of two Sarah Barnes, who lives on Bond Street, said she felt moved to do something after witnessing her young nephew's battle with cancer and her own son having to deal with affects of alopecia.

Sarah, who works as a support worker for three different agencies, decided to donate her much loved golden locks to The Little Princess Trust - a charity that provides wigs to children who have lost their hair due to cancer and other illnesses.

It had been almost two years since she last visited the hairdressers, with the three Covid-19 lockdowns resulting in her having even longer hair than normal.

She said: "My nephew who is only six-years-old is battling cancer and has been so brave over the last couple of years.

"Both of my own children are young adults now.

"My son was diagnosed with alopecia two years ago when he was 17 and has lost all of his hair.

"Despite our support throughout, his fairly quick hair loss caused him quite a lot of distress and he wears a baseball cap, even in the house.

"I want to raise awareness about young boys, especially who are also conscious about their appearance as your hair is part of expressing your identity."

So on Wednesday, June 16, Sarah booked herself into Francesco Group hair salon in Kingsmead, to have her waist length hair cut to a short bob.

Northwich Guardian: Sarah said she is really happy with her new cut

Sarah said she is really happy with her new cut

She added: "I have carefully chosen this charity because it provides wigs to children who have lost their hair from cancer or other illness.

"I had 19 inches cut off because when I was doing my research about who to give me hair to.

"The Little Princess Trust need 16 inches bobble to bobble.

"They need real hair wigs because they want them to look as natural as possible and children want to look the same as their friends.

"Although I've got personal reasons for wanting to do it, Covid has also given me extra motivation.

"Since it was last cut in September 2019, its been difficult to maintain, so I'm really pleased it's all off now."

Sarah said she wanted to encourage others, both male of female, who may have grown their hair during lockdown to consider doing something similar.

"With Covid there must be lots of men, women and children with longer hair and to consider whether they would donate it," she said.

"You only need to donate nine inches to some of the charities and I bet there will be some men who wouldn't have even thought about doing it.

"So it's nice to raise awareness about how easy it is to do.

"You only have to research it online and they list all the different charities for you."