‘Legacy Of Love For My Little Girl'

We meet the mum who set up a charity providing real hair wigs to children affected by cancer in memory of her own little girl who tragically passed away

- Katharine Wootton

Hannah Tarplee was a typical, happy little four-year-old girly girl when her parents found a lump in her tummy.

“She’d barely been poorly at all and was a very healthy girl,” says Mum Wendy. Once they headed to the doctors to put their minds at ease, however, the family received the devastating news that Hannah had a kidney tumour.

Immediately, treatment began including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, all of which took its toll on the whole family. But one thing that had an especially big impact on little Hannah was losing her lovely hair.

“Like many little girls, Hannah’s hair was a big part of her identity and so it was very difficult to explain to someone as young as her why she was losing it. Seeing a child with a bald head is obviously a very visual sign that they’re poorly. I’d often see when we went out on the days Hannah felt well that she’d be skipping along and then someone would give her a sympathetic look and it would bring her spirits down again.”