Headmaster Awarded MBE for Support of Children’s Hair Loss Charity

Congratulations to Tim Wheeler, the Headmaster of Stockport Grammar School and Chair of Trustees at, children's hair loss charity, The Little Princess Trust, on being awarded an MBE in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours.

According to a Facebook post on the official Little Princess Trust page, it was given in recognition of his services to both charity and education.

Wheeler was previously head of Hereford Cathedral Junior School where he became involved with this popular organisation, which provides real hair wigs free of charge to children with medical hair loss.

This was the school attended by Hannah Tarplee, the young girl in whose memory The Little Princess Trust - was founded in 2006.

A dedicated boys division, Hero by LPT, was added in 2017. Both help children who have lost their hair, frequently as a result of cancer treatment, Alopecia Areata or one of its more extensive phenotypes, Alopecia Totalis or Alopecia Universalis, to feel more 'normal'.

Completed ten marathons

One of the ways in which Wheeler, 58, raises awareness and funds for Little Princess Trust is by running marathons. He has completed ten so far, with plans for more, in addition to carrying out his Trustee duties - and day job!

Tim Wheeler told the Trust that being notified of his impending award "came as an enormous surprise".

"It has been a privilege to be able to contribute to the work of such an amazing charity, which not only impacts directly on the lives of children now but is also rapidly developing its research programme in an attempt to find kinder treatments for the future.”

CEO of The Little Princess Trust, Phil Brace, praised Tim Wheeler's "energy, enthusiasm and dedication," saying "We are absolutely thrilled that Tim's incredible work in the charity and education sectors has been recognised in the form of an MBE".

Another Royal nod

Little Princess Trust and Hero by LPT are some of the best-known UK hair loss charities and have already been awarded the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service - known as 'the MBE for volunteer groups'.

They enjoy support from people of all ages who donate their time, money - and hair - including some high profile celebrities and royalty.

In January 2018, real life princess, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge had her hair cut and donated a 7 inch pony tail of her hair to Little Princess Trust.

She followed in the footsteps of actor, singer and Gucci model, Harry Styles who grew his hair especially long in order to be able to donate a good amount to the Trust when he had it chopped short.

Hair donations are blended together so each wig they are woven into is a mix of various people's strands and the donors' identities are kept secret so no-one knows whether their wig contains hairs from a pop star, a princess or anyone else.

In addition to providing real-hair wigs to children in need, Little Princess Trust also funds vital research into childhood cancers, having put £2,800,000 towards this already.

Anyone wanting to donate hair or money, or simply find out more about the charity, can visit littleprincesses.org.uk.