AN Enfield football development officer shaved her head for a cancer charity yesterday.

Sinem Cakir, 23, of Culgaith Gardens, gathered friends and family at Trent Park Golf Centre, in Bramley Road, where her cousin Mehmet Hassan shaved her hair with a razor.

She collected £1,111 for the Youth Cancer Trust yesterday alone, bringing her total to more than £3,000, and she said she hoped the exercise would help her empathise with chemotherapy patients.

She said: “I just knew it would generate a large amount of support from my friends and family and people who wouldn't do this themselves.

“I know a lot of people would do things like sky diving but I didn't have guts to be honest. This is just a way of understanding what it's like to have a bald head and to walk into a room and get that reaction.”

As her hair was being shaved on a stage in the clubhouse friends and family gathered round while a DJ played music in the background.

Mr Hassan, who owns a barber shop in North Chingford, said: “I've never done anything like this before. She came and told me about the charity and I said 'why don't I sponsor you?'

“It went great. Shaving a head in the shop and shaving it in front of hundreds of people is different. You get nervous.”

The charity offers young cancer patients from across the UK free holidays at its centre in Bournemouth, where they can meet other people of a similar age who have been through the same experience.