Little Princess Trust
850. Simon Tarplee
851. Wendy Tarplee-Morris
Simon Tarplee, from Cheltenham, and Wendy Tarplee-Morris, from Hereford, founded the ‘Little Princess Trust’ in 2006 in memory of their daughter Hannah who died from cancer in 2005.
The pair realised it was difficult for children to access free real hair wigs and decided to offer this service to young people who have lost their hair through cancer treatment or other illnesses. Over 11 years, the Trust has given out over 5,000 wigs to children, each one of them for free, and now receives over 4,500 donations of hair per year. With high profile support from celebrities, the trust has donated over £700,000 to research into paediatric cancer. In 2017 the Trust launched ‘Hero by LPT’, aimed at supporting boys and young men suffering from hair loss following their cancer treatment.
Simon and Wendy received their awards at the Downing Street No.10 Children’s Christmas party reception, where they were also joined by five children who have benefitted from their donated wigs.
In a personal letter to Simon, Prime Minister Theresa May said:
“By creating ‘The Little Princess Trust’ with Wendy, you have responded to the tragic loss of your daughter Hannah with remarkable strength and brought comfort to thousands of children who are undergoing cancer treatment and distressed by their traumatic hair loss. You should be very proud of inspiring thousands of people to donate their hair to this exceptional cause as well as the impact the Trust’s fundraising is having on research into child cancers.”
Simon said:
“I was so shocked to hear that Wendy and I are to receive the award, which I am very proud to accept. The ‘Little Princess Trust’ is of course something very important to me. The thousands of children the charity has helped is a huge legacy to our daughter Hannah, in whose name the charity was set up.”
In a personal letter to Wendy, Prime Minister Theresa May said:
“Following the tragic loss of your daughter Hannah, you have turned a personal tragedy into an incredible force for good by establishing ‘The Little Princess Trust’ with Simon. Your work helping source and create real hair wigs has transformed the young lives of child cancer patients, allowing them to look and feel more like themselves at an incredibly difficult time of their lives. You should feel very proud of the donations you have inspired and the projects you have funded to further research into childhood cancer treatments.”
Wendy said:
“I was absolutely thrilled to hear that both Simon and I are to receive a Points of Light award, and it is an honour to accept it. It came as a complete shock and I feel incredibly humbled to have been selected. I feel that it adds even further to our daughter’s legacy and I know that she would be very proud of the work that has been done in her memory.”