A PEMBROKE Dock woman has raised £800 for a children’s cancer charity after agreeing to have her hair cut for the first time in more than 50 years.

Jillian Warren, 60, of King Street had hoped to raise £200 for the charity CLIC Sargent by having her 33 inch long blonde hair cut by stylist Della Griffiths at the town’s Style Studio.

As well as raising four times the money she initially hoped, Jillian’s hair, including a 21 inch plait, will be used to provide wigs for youngsters suffering from cancer.

Jillian, who has rheumatoid arthritis, has been finding it increasingly difficult to look after her precious hair, which she last had cut, rather than trimmed, at the age of eight or nine.

Jillian said: “I thought: ‘it’s going to have to come off,’ rather than it just end up on the salon floor I thought let’s do something good with it.

“I just thought, if we can eradicate cancer in children then perhaps the adults won’t have it.”

She added: “I broke my heart when Della did the first cut, I literally sobbed.

“I was so impressed with how much was raised, everybody has had such nice comments about how I look.

Jillian is getting used to her new short hair, but perhaps she’ll miss the attention she used to get.

“Total strangers would come up to me in the street and touch it; a couple of times I’d have to bite my tongue not to give them a slap.”