Wirral PR manager’s hair raising chop for children’s cancer charity

A Wirral PR manager who’s spent the last four years growing her hair is getting ready for the big chop for charity.

Rachael Bruce, 42, is planning to donate her lopped-off locks to The Little Princess Trust which provides real hair wigs, free of charge, to children and young people who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment.

She’s also hoping to raise £550 to cover the cost of making the wig, in memory of her late mum, Irene, a former nursing sister at Alder Hey.

Rachel, from Wallasey, says: “My mum had a rare form of blood cancer but sadly passed away in April 2019 before a full diagnosis, but one of the last sensible conversations we had was how, if she needed chemo, she’d shave her head before her hair fell out.

“So after mum died I decided I’d grow my hair to donate to charity, and I’ve been growing it ever since.

“It reaches my waist now and I finally have the 12 inches you need to make a wig, so I’m getting ready for the big chop in April, almost four years to the day mum passed away.”

Rachael’s mum, Irene Swale – affectionately known as ‘Brucie’ at the Liverpool children’s hospital where she worked for around 40 years – became ill at the beginning of 2019, just two months after her 70^th birthday.

She ended up in hospital and was initially treated for a variety of individual conditions before she was diagnosed with a form of leukaemia.

Rachael explains: “At first it was thought she had a kidney infection and then a rare heart condition before cancer was diagnosed.

“Mum was in hospital for 11 weeks before she passed away.

“In the end she was too ill for treatment and it was after she died that we learned she had a very rare form of blood cancer – Waldenstrom’s Lymphoplasmacytic Lymphoma – which affects only 350 a year in the UK. In the US it has an incidence of only three in a million (my brother James asked ‘so you know how everyone thinks their mum is one in a million, does that mean ours actually was?!).

“When mum died I wanted to give blood because she had had this rare form of blood cancer, but I couldn’t because they said my blood didn’t flow fast enough; so I wondered what else I could do.

“That’s when I decided to grow my hair and donate it to charity.”

She goes on: “Mum had long hair when I was a baby but when I was about six weeks old and James was six, our dad had a motorbike accident and it just wasn’t manageable while she was looking after the two of us on her own for a while.

“She cut it off in a bit of a temper,” smiles Rachael, “and it sat in a drawer in the living room for a long time. I don’t think back then she realised she could have donated it.

Irene Swale 70th birthday with bridesmaids

“I decided to donate my hair to The Little Princess Trust, because while mum mainly worked with children with neurology issues, she also worked on the oncology wards, and she would tell me about the young patients she saw.”

Rachael will have her hair cut on April 6 by her hairdresser friend, Debbie Edward-Hughes, owner of Salon 103 in Wallasey.

And she won’t just be having it cut!

“I’m going for a complete transformation,” says Rachael. “I’m going to plait it so Debbie can do the dramatic cut of that ready for The Princess Trust Foundation to it create a wig, and then I’m going to have it died pink.

“To be honest, I’ll be delighted to get it cut – my hair’s very thick and it’s been giving me headaches – but it’s lovely to think that I’ll be able to help a young child who has a terrible illness and who’s going through a difficult time.

“I think mum would be proud of me.”

To support Rachael go to https://justgiving.com/fundraising/rachael-bruce4