After 8-year-old Christian McPhilamy from Melbourne, Florida, saw a commercial for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, he decided to grow out his hair and donate it to a foundation called Children With Hair Loss.
It's been two years, and Christian finally reached his goal hair length; he donated four 10-inch ponytails, despite facing criticism from his peers along the way.
[seealso slug="senior-trip-cancer-fund"]
His mother, Deeanna Thomas, posted his story to Facebook, noting that she is "one proud mommy."
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Posted by Deeanna Thomas on Wednesday, May 20, 2015
"He has endured an awful lot of criticism, and yes even bullying, throughout this time," his mother wrote on Facebook. "From his peers calling him a girl to even coaches and family friends telling him he should cut it or offering him money to."
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Posted by Deeanna Thomas on Wednesday, May 20, 2015
It all began two years ago when Christian and Deeana were going through their nightly ritual of searching online for something that interested Christian, Today reports. Although he typically looked up animals, that night he chose to research St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and an ad for hair donation popped up on the site.
Deeanna explained to her son that cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy sometimes accept hair donations, and Christian expressed interest in doing just that.
"I was blown away," Deeanna told Today. "Usually when Christian sets his mind to something, he pretty much goes with it. He doesn't let anything falter his goals. I was pretty confident that he was actually going to follow through with it."
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Posted by Deeanna Thomas on Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Children with Hair Loss, which was founded in September 2000, is a nonprofit that delivers free wigs for children. Those interested in donating hair can find more information on its website.