BURBAGE mum Karen Carey has bravely shaved off all her hair to raise money for charity after seeing both her parents diagnosed with cancer.

The 44-year-old, of Martingale Road, has endured the heartbreak of losing her dad Brian Hoath to the disease nine years ago, aged 62, and now her mum Pat, 70, of Braintree, Essex, is receiving treatment for endometrial cancer.

There were tears, claps and hugs when hairdresser Sally Flippence chopped all Mrs Carey’s raven locks off during the emotional feat at Burbage Primary School on Thursday.

Mrs Carey has been so inspired by her mum’s bravery of losing her hair and dealing with the diagnosis that the childminder made the decision to go under the clippers in support. She has also raised more than £1,000 for Macmillan, who previously helped the family.

The mum-of-two chose to do the emotional feat at the school, where she is a school governor, in front of parents, teachers and pupils, one of whom is her nine-year-old daughter Amy who watched in tears before hugging her mum.

Mrs Carey said: “We have recently discovered one of the children here has been diagnosed with a very aggressive brain tumour and he is currently going through chemotherapy.

“We do not know if his family will need the help of Macmillan, so it is showing support for this little nine-year-old who has got to go through hell on earth. It is emotive as well as financial for the charity.

“It is only hair and it is going to grow back,” she added. “I have the choice to do this but thousands of women in the country do not.

“This is my way of saying thank you. We had the use of the fantastic Macmillan nurses and they supported my mum as well as my dad.

"I was very close to my dad, so I still find it hard at Christmas and birthdays.

“My mum’s cancer was caught early and when we found out we thought we are not doing this again and it is not going to beat us this time and so far it has not.

“I have done running for charity in the past and everyone does that, and this came up on my Facebook feed and I thought because my mum was going through it at the time and I knew what was going to happen, that this was a really good way of showing a bit of solidarity to her and also raising money for a charity that does an amazing job.”