A KINGSBRIDGE restaurant owner has donated her hair to make wigs for children undergoing cancer treatment.

Monika Albert Danyine, who owns Madeleine’s Restaurant with her family, chose to support the Little Princess Trust, which makes and donates wigs to children who have lost their hair through cancer treatment and other conditions.

Monika supports a different charity at Christmas time every year and decided to donate to the Little Princess Trust after seeing local children walk past the restaurant.

‘Seeing the kids walk past the window, I decided I wanted to support a children’s charity’, said Monika, ‘I did some research and came across the Little Princess Trust.’

Monika visited Belinda David Hair Salon on Fore Street for her chop, where hairdresser Sarah Edgcombe cut the required seven inches of Monika’s hair to be sent to make wigs.

Sarah admitted she ‘loved’ cutting long hair short, and Monika was left with a style that really suited her.

Belinda David’s owner, Patricia Keir, donated the price of the haircut to the charity, which Monika is also fundraising for. A lady who was in having her own haircut at the same time, overheard what was going on and also donated a few pounds to the cause.

The Little Princess Trust was launched in 2006 by the parents of Hannah Tarplee, who was the original Little Princess. She was diagnosed with having a Wilms tumour and after a brave battle, died in 2005.

At that time, finding high quality wigs for children was very difficult and only after a long search was a suitable company eventually found which made a wig for Hannah. She very much enjoyed wearing her wig, particularly on special occasions.

After Hannah passed away, so many kind people offered help, financial and practical. Hannah’s parents, Wendy and Simon decided that the most fitting way to use this help was to launch a charity dedicated to providing specialist real hair children’s wigs. Like so many Little Princesses, Hannah loved her hair and losing it was very traumatic.

Since its inception, the charity has now helped thousands of boys and girls. We work with suppliers throughout the UK and Ireland, all of whom supply beautiful, real hair wigs. We continue to look for new suppliers all the time.

To find out more about the Little Princess Trust, visit the website: www.littleprincesses.org.uk, and if you would like to donate to them Monika is collecting money at Madeleine’s Restaurant, 15 Church Street, Kingsbridge.