COURAGEOUS Helen Glover admitted to feeling a tad nervous before the big event, but not enough to turn and run.

She submitted her glorious pink hair to the ministrations of her hairdresser James Harris-Hawkins of the Head Office salon in Wimborne, and within moments it was gone.

Admitting that her pink hair was her ‘pride and joy’, Helen, 40, of West Moors, said that was why it had to go.

She is raising money for her friend Carol Andrews, 38, who is receiving chemotherapy for secondary breast cancer and she was at the Nightjar pub in Ferndown with husband Martin and daughter Tamara, seven, to cheer her on.

“I know my hair will grow back,” said Helen.

“That’s how I have to look at it. But I wanted to say to Carol and other cancer patients that you can look beautiful with no hair. It’s the one big issue they all have.”

Carol tried to talk her out of it at one stage but Helen was determined to have her crowning glory shaved off, although on the morning of the day she did admit to being ‘really nervous’.

Her daughter Hannah, 23, said: “I think she’s really brave. I couldn’t do it.” While son Charlie, 11, thought she was ‘nuts’.

“I’m trying to raise as much money as I possibly can,” said Helen.

She has a target of £500 and all the money raised will be split fifty-fifty between Carol and Julia’s House children’s hospice. She is a volunteer at the Ferndown shop.

“Carol would love to have her dream holiday with her little one at Disneyland and I want to help her along the way to getting there,” said her friend.

She added: “I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me and helped me raise the money to help them.”