Boy who lost hair to cancer donates his locks after they grow back

By Kate Pounds via SWNS

A little boy who lost his hair to cancer as a toddler donated 28cm of his locks when they grew back.

Sebastian Stevens, now ten, survived a rare soft tissue tumor - called rhabdomyosarcoma - when he was a toddler.

He lost all his blonde baby hair due to the nine rounds of chemotherapy he underwent.

Sebastian decided to grow his hair four years ago to help other children and had 28cm of his locks cut off in April 2024.

He donated his hair to the Little Princess Trust - charity providing real hair wigs to children and young people who have lost their own through cancer.

Sebastian, from Burgess Hill, west Sussex, , said: "I hope the person who gets my hair is overjoyed and loves having it.

"I want them to feel happy and normal and like themselves again.

"It feels really good to know I can make someone happy.

"I really want to help people who have lost their hair. I saw lots of girls do it at a charity thing and I thought 'I can do that'."

Mum Natasha Penney, 42, an education mentor said: "It's such an amazing thing to give something so precious. We're just so proud of him."

Sebastian was diagnosed with a stage four tumor, called rhabdomyosarcoma, in his bladder and prostate gland when he was just 18 months old, in October 2015.

Natasha and dad Luke Stevens, 40, a care home manager, thought he was in pain because he couldn't sleep and didn't want to be put down anywhere.

They found blood in his urine and was in pain when he went to the toilet.

He was diagnosed following a scan after his bowel prolapsed twice.

Sebastian needed nine rounds of chemotherapy and had surgery to remove the tumor in January 2016.

He had a special kind of radiotherapy - called Brachytherapy - which was delivered directly into the rare tumour, in February 2016.

Natasha said: "That treatment was amazing.

"It saved his bladder.

"At the time he was the youngest child in the country to have it.

"But it was a horrific time.

"His hair was annoying him when it started falling out so one day when he was asleep on me I brushed it and it all came out. It was long because we'd hardly cut it.

"It all just came out in one hand. It was really hard for me.

"When he woke up he didn't seem too bothered but he did wear a little woolly hat to keep his head warm.

"Other people's responses were the hardest. They just didn't know what to say."

After five years of monitoring, Sebastian was given the all-clear in June 2021.

He started growing his hair when hairdressers were closed in lockdown and spent four years growing it out before getting it chopped.