A six-year-old girl is saying goodbye to her luscious long locks to help other children who have lost their hair.

Gracie Parkyn is donating up to eight inches of her waist-length hair to the Little Princess Trust, which gives free wigs to youngsters who have lost their hair due to illness.

She was inspired by recent stories in the Herald’s sister title, the Midweek Herald about other young girls cutting their hair for the charity and made the decision that she too wanted to help others.

The six-year-old said: “I’m really excited and a bit nervous. I really want to help them. I really want to say thank you to everyone who has given money.”

Gracie is also on her way to raising £350, the cost of making one wig, and on Thursday underwent her ‘big chop’ with help of staff at Cutting Edge Hair Salon in Ottery.

Her mum Lisa said: “I was interested for her to see the article so we sat down together to read it. She is aware some people do not have hair, she had a think about it and she had a few questions but then said she wanted to do it.”

The family sent away for a fundraising pack which included a video about the impact the wig had on youngsters and their families.

Lisa said: “The girl was talking about having alopecia, it’s a moving DVD and Gracie understood it. My husband and I were in tears, she asked ‘why are we crying? someone will get my wig’.

“She has gorgeous hair, I thought there is no way she wants to cut it off but she is enjoying raising the money.

“It’s a big change. I am really proud she is doing it, I am quite surprised how much she wanted to do it. We watched the video and talked about thinking about others rather than looking pretty.”

To donate to Gracie’s fundraising visit her Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/graciesbigchop