Eight-year-old Grace Povey from Melksham has sacrificed her beautiful locks to help people who have lost their hair through treatment for cancer.

Grace, of Waverley Gardens, watched an item about the Little Princess Trust on BBC’s Newsround programme with her chums at Aloeric Primary School. The charity makes wigs for people who have lost their hair as a result of chemotherapy.

The piece affected Grace, who is this year’s Melksham carnival butterfly princess, quite deeply and she determined that she was going to help.

The first her mother Michelle Brightwell knew of this was when she was brushing Grace’s 27-inch tresses one evening.

She said: “Grace suddenly said, I don’t need my hair, do I Mummy? I nearly fell through the floor. She told me about the charity and I was so proud that she would be prepared to do something like this.”

Some 15 inches of hair was taken from Grace’s crowning glory at Hairtek hair salon in Melksham on Monday. As well as donating enough hair for a wig, valued at £350, Grace has also raised £527 for the charity.

Watching the process was Grace’s two-year-old brother Austin.

Ms Brightwell said: “Austin didn’t know what to make of what was going on but when he had to have his own hair cut this week, having watched Grace have hers done, he didn’t make any fuss at all.”