Eight-year-old Ruby Reynolds recently braved a haircut of her beautiful long hair to raise money for St Barnabas Hospice to thank the nurses for looking after her grandfather Ray during the last weeks of his life.
She donated £230 to the Hospice so it may continue to support patients who need compassionate, dignified palliative and end-of-life care.
Ray Nicholson was diagnosed with cancer in March 2016 and died just over a month later in his own home, surrounded by his loving family. Ruby was only two years old at the time but often speaks of her grandfather and wanted to thank the nurses who looked after him. 
Ruby decided to grow her hair long during the first lockdown to eventually cut it for charity and had been planning the haircut for over two years before finally getting her long-awaited haircut on 24th September.
Ruby’s mother Lisa says: “Ruby was really excited about having ‘a bob with bangs’. A hairdresser at our usual salon cut her hair free of charge as it was for such a good cause. As soon as they made the first cut, she was just smiling!
“She donated the hair to The Little Princess Trust so has made every effort to help as many people as possible. Because we live in Sheffield, Ruby donated half of the donations to a hospice here that looked after her father’s uncle when he died. In total she raised £470, and I couldn’t be prouder. This has also earned her a charity badge at Brownies!”
Lisa remembers her father Ray as a quiet family man, who enjoyed watching motor racing on TV and worked until he got ill at the age of 72. In March 2016, Ray went into Louth hospital with breathlessness where he was diagnosed with Primary Metastatic Lung Cancer that had spread to his bones.
Lisa says: “Dad came home after a week in hospital and was cared for by my mum and the nurses at St Barnabas along with Marie Curie nurses if we needed them during the night. Dad sadly passed away on 25th April 2016.
“The care that my dad and my family received was amazing, they cared for him with dignity. He was a very proud man and would have hated any fuss. They not only cared for my dad and kept him comfortable, but they also looked after my Mum and even came to see her after my dad had passed away to make sure that she was OK and offered lots of aftercare. We would not have got through it without them.
“The day they told us that dad only had a few hours left to live was handled very delicately. We trusted that he was always in the best possible hands – all we could have wanted.”
To honour her dad and support Ruby, Lisa took on a challenge of her own, running the Sheffield 10k on 25th September, one day after Ruby’s haircut.
On this achievement, Lisa says: “I hardly trained and had Covid two weeks before, so it was a tough challenge. My chest was very painful, and I didn’t think I could do it, but I did – for Ruby and for my dad. I saw my family at the finish line and there were lots of tears to know that we had achieved something amazing!”
Thank you, Ruby and Lisa, for your kind donation to St Barnabas Hospice, which supports over 12,000 people living with a life-limiting or terminal illness, their families, and carers across Lincolnshire each year.
If you would like to make a donation to St Barnabas, please visit: https://stbarnabashospice.co.uk/donate/
