BOSCASTLE Primary School pupil Evie Reid had a birthday with a difference on Tuesday, September 11.

Instead of celebrating her ninth birthday with a party, nearly 100 people packed into The Millhouse Inn in Trebarwith Strand to see her have her head shaved to raise money for CLIC Sargent.

In the end, the afternoon raised £320.65, although that’s just a fraction of the current overall total of £2,805.55, before the Post went to press.

Evie came up with the idea at home.

Her mum, Chloe Michell, said: “Evie saw the Brave The Shave advert on TV and said she’d like to do it. We talked to her in-depth about it to make sure this is right but she wanted to raise money for CLIC Sargent.

“She was going to have a birthday party but decided to have the shave instead.

“We had to have a last minute change of venue from the Strand Café to the Mill House due to the weather, which meant a bit of a rush for me and a couple of friends to set it up, but the turnout was great. We had friends and family as well as classmates from Boscastle CP.

“She was really nervous and got a bit emotional so we decided to turn her back to the crowd. First of all I cut off her pigtails, which will be sent to the Princess Trust who make wigs for children.

“Once I started shaving she started to relax a bit and everyone crowded around her and we ended up at a grade six. We were going to go shorter but didn’t.

“We ended up raising £320.65 on the day and had tea and coffee, cakes, glitter tattoos and face paint. We decided to ask for donations instead of setting prices and it worked really well.”

Raising nearly £3,000 is a remarkable effort, especially when the original target was considerably less.

Chloe added: “All of our donations have been through Just Giving. We started off with a target of £1,000, which we did in three days. We then put it up to £1,500, which was done within the week, and then we put it up to £2,000. It’s just been circulating and gone up and up.

“The donations have come from family and friends and we’ve even had an anonymous donation of £300. We still don’t know who it was. It’s quite phenomenal really. We’re going to try and get to £3,000 as we’re so close, but we wouldn’t too disappointed if we don’t.

“Lee (dad) and I are so proud of Evie and we’re just overwhelmed with the generosity of everyone and their support.”

If you would like to help them reach their latest target, visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/evie-melody-cilp-for-cancer