A HEREFORD charity is looking to move to a home of its own where it can welcome some of the world’s leading childhood cancer specialists.

The Little Princess Trust has acquired new premises in the city centre as it seeks to play a bigger role in the research of the diseases facing many youngsters.

Charity bosses say the acquisition fulfils a long-term ambition to “put down roots” in its home city.

And, providing planning permission is given, work will soon start on the redevelopment of 22, 23 and 25 Berrington Street to house all of the Trust’s operations in one building. 

The ambitious plans include a salon, which will enable children to have wigs styled and fitted on site, and a wig-making facility within the building that will resurrect the greatly-diminished craft of wig-making in the UK and create new jobs in the community.

As the Trust extends its cancer research programme, the new premises will also incorporate a training and seminar suite to host ground-breaking paediatric cancer treatment and research conferences with the charity’s funding partners and laboratories. 

The first of these seminars could take place as early as 2020, attended by international delegates from some of the world’s leading paediatric cancer research organisations.

Little Princess Trust CEO Phil Brace said: “Our aspiration is to have not just all of our administrative and operational activities under one roof, but equally to launch a Centre of Excellence in the form of a purpose-built salon, which would allow us to offer a complete wig-fitting service for the children and young people that we help.”

He added that the striking facility would be the first of its kind for Herefordshire, adding value to the local economy and putting the city on the map as a key player in the field of childhood cancer research and wig provision. 

Mr Brace said: “This is a very exciting phase for The Little Princess Trust, as the charity continues to offer an exemplary service to children and young people experiencing hair loss as a result of cancer and other medical conditions, while at the same time working towards developing less toxic treatments for paediatric cancer and, ultimately, a cure.”

Meanwhile, Little Princess Trust co-founder Wendy Tarplee-Morris said she was thrilled that the new premises would remain in the heart of the city as the “local community has always been so incredibly supportive of the charity”.

"It will be a fantastic facility for our day to day operations, but it has always been our ambition to introduce a wig making
and fitting service on site," she added.

"The added conference suite will provide great facility for the paediatric cancer research community. As well as being a fantastic training venue for our wig fitters.

"It is such a positive step forward for the charity and the start of an exciting new chapter."

And Tim Wheeler, Chair of the Trustees, said the continued growth of the charity allows them to help an increasing number of children while also “funding research which we hope will impact on the lives of children in the future”. 

"Having our own premises will not only allow us to pull the whole operation together under one roof but also provide the potential for us to develop our work still further,” Mr Wheeler added.

The purchase and proposed development at Berrington Street has been made possible for the Trust as a result of donations and grants from the local community and further afield.

To date, the charity, which is currently based in offices on Broad Street, has given away nearly 8,000 free real-hair wigs and has committed circa £5million into supporting life-saving research projects and developing more targeted and more effective treatments for all childhood cancer types. 

All of this has been made possible as a direct result of the “incredible support” the charity receives from fundraisers and hair donors in Hereford, the UK and around the world.