BRAVE Lili Leung bid a fond farewell to her flowing locks at the weekend, in a move to help The Little Princess Trust and raise more than £2,000 for young cancer patients.

The 12-year-old, from Poole, also wanted to raise awareness of alopecia, as a close pal has the condition and wears a wig.

Lili, who attends Parkstone Grammar School, told the Echo: "It feels nice to have done something like this, my friend is very close to me and she is very jolly - which is so cool because she's been through so much."

While her hair is on its way to the Little Princess Trust, the money raised will go towards the charity Cancer Research UK Kids and Teens.

She had her hair cut at Intrigue Hair Design, Ashley Cross, on Saturday. (Feb 4)

Lili's proud mum Jo Leung said: "They were great at Intrigue and cut Lili's hair for free.

"We went to Patrick's, the wine bar at Ashley Cross, and did a raffle afterwards and raised £500. Along with the £1,800 raised on the just giving website, it has been amazing.

"Lili came home from school about three weeks ago and said she wanted to have her hair cut - she chose Cancer Research for Kids and Teens because a couple of friends of mine have died of breast cancer, and another close friend's little boy had cancer of the eye. So the charity is very close to Lili's heart."

The Little Princess Trust works to provide free wigs to sick children. It also recently awarded, in partnership with the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group, more than £500,000 to fund research into childhood cancers.

Wendy Tarplee-Morris, trustee and co-founder of The Little Princess Trust, said: "I am incredibly proud of what has been achieved during the ten years that we have been running.

"We have given away 4,500 real hair wigs to sick children which is astonishing.

"When we initially started the charity we spoke of how wonderful it would be if one day there wouldn’t be a need for an organisation of this kind.

"I could never have imagined that ten years later we would be able to fund research which might one day help to achieve just that."

Visit justgiving.com/fundraising/Jo-Leung to support Lili's cause.