A TEN-YEAR-OLD Uley boy had his very first haircut to raise funds for charity.

Luke Coffey sold tickets at £1 at a time so that his classmates at Uley C of E Primary School could have the privilege of chopping the long curly hair, which reached half-way down his back and had never been cut since babyhood.

The lucky winner was Jed Linwood, 11, who had the task of cutting off Luke's pony tail.

The ceremony in the packed school hall was under the watchful eye of class teacher James Taylor and attended by children, parents and staff.

"Although Luke's parents liked his hair long, they were more than happy to let him have it cut once he had decided that's what he wanted to do," said Mr Taylor.

"They felt it was probably time for a change and I thought it was brilliant that Luke wanted to do it for charity. The whole thing was entirely Luke's idea."

The hair cutting raised an amazing £350 for the charity Toilet Twinning, which twins loos with latrines in developing countries.

Afterwards Luke said: "I'm a bit sad to lose my pony tail but I'm really happy to have raised so much money for Toilet Twinning."