A NINE-year-old girl whose brother and mother both battled cancer cut her hair off for charity on Friday.

Kacey Seddon, from Ingleby Barwick, has donated the ten inches she cut off to the Little Princess Trust, which provides real hair wigs for children who have lost their hair having treatment for cancer.

She is also gathering sponsorship for the hair cut, with a target of £350 to cover the cost of making a wig.

She said: "My brother and my mam have both lost their hair when having chemo so I know how important this is. I hope that getting a wig with my hair in it will make somebody who is poorly feel better and help to make them smile."

Her mother, Sandra Seddon, who has battled cancer three times, said: "I'm really proud of her because it was all her idea. She came to me and said she had been thinking about getting her hair cut and then she thought that she could donate it.

"We measured her hair and it was long enough to donate, and then she decided to raise some money too.

"She has had it cut to about shoulder length."

Mrs Seddon was 19 when she was first diagnosed with bone cancer. She recovered after high doses of chemotherapy, but since then has battled two bouts of breast cancer, losing her hair during the first.

Kacey's ten-year-old brother was diagnosed with a muscle tumour when he was three and underwent chemotherapy, losing his hair in the process. He has not needed treatment since 2009.

Kacey, who is in year five at Ingleby Mill Primary School, had her hair cut at the town's Two Moons hairdressing salon, which agreed to carry it out free of charge so the money can be donated to the charity instead.

The Little Princess Trust works on the principle that losing their hair is a very difficult side effect for children battling cancer. The charity aims to get a wig to children three to six weeks following the first chemotherapy treatment, when they start to lose their hair.

The charity also helps children with other conditions which result in hair loss, the most common being alopecia.