A four-year-old Elstree girl has had her long hair cut for Zichron Menachem, the Israeli cancer charity which creates made-to-measure wigs for Israeli children who have lost their hair during treatment.

Chana Garson - daughter of Elstree's Ohr Yisrael Federation congregation minister Rabbi Raphy Garson - presented the charity's UK representatives with two plaits each measuring more than 30 centimetres following her first haircut.

Her achievement has inspired her older sisters Batsheva Leah, 10, and Miri, eight, to follow suit. The sisters are pupils at Beis Yaakov Primary in Colindale.

Than-king fri-ends and family for sponsoring the cut, which raised £1,500 for the charity, Chana added: "I know there are little children who are not well and who sadly don't have any hair. I have spent the last 1,627 days growing my hair. Now it has been cut, it will be made into a wig, so that other children like me can also have hair on their head."

The long tresses were cropped by professional hairdresser Dina Levy, an Israeli now living in Golders Green, whose grandson has recovered from leukaemia.