Touching reason teen has decided to shave his head

A 13-year-old boy is having his head shaved to raise money for a hospice which is supporting his mum, who has stage four cancer.

Henry, from Warrington, Cheshire, decided he wanted to give back to St Rocco's Hospice in the town, which has been providing palliative care and support to his mum Sarah, 43, after she was diagnosed with bowel cancer about 18 months ago.

Henry said: "She has had multiple operations which were unsuccessful and she is now on palliative treatment to prolong her life.

"In the last few months St Rocco's has helped my mum to come to turns with this and will be more help in the future."

He added: "With this in mind I want to raise money to help support them in continuing to provide the support and care to others like they have my mum."

Sarah said she was "immensely proud of what he has achieved", describing Henry as "an amazing boy" and "such a caring loving young man".

"He's a great help at home - he is classed as a young carer because he does help me at times when I'm not feeling great," she said.

She described Henry as a "larger than life character" who "makes me laugh every day" which "lightens the mood a lot".

Sarah said she was initially diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer in March 2025 at the age of 43, and she underwent an operation to have a stoma fitted and chemotherapy, "which unfortunately didn't work".

The cancer was found to have spread to surrounding organs and she underwent another operation at the Christie Hospital in Manchester, along with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy - a type of heated chemotherapy used for some people with ovarian, tubal or peritoneal cancer.

Sarah said that in March this year she underwent scans which found a number of nodes "which they said were inoperable, so now I'm on treatment to prolong life rather than to cure" the cancer.

The mum-of-three, who also has a daughter, 19, and son, 21, said Henry came up with the idea of having his head shaved to show solidarity to his mum when nurses told her she would probably lose her hair during treatment.

"He said he would shave his head when I lost my hair so I wasn't the only one who was bald in the family," she said.

"Although I have lost quite a bit it is not noticeable but he still wanted to shave his head."

She said they chose St Rocco's Hospice "as I have been going there recently and they have been supporting me through a few things so it does seem right to see if he can raise some money for them".

Sarah said she has been supported by St Rocco's Hospice for about four months now, saying staff and volunteers there had been "an amazing help".

They have offered complementary therapies to her as well as for her mum, "who has been a big support over the last 18 months" as part of their support for the wider family.

"They are always lovely welcoming people and they have been an amazing resource really for a lot of people in Warrington and the surrounding area," she added.

Henry's head shave will take place on 8 October and he has already raised more than £1,000 for the charity.

Sarah said the support shown by family and friends and the wider community was "amazing", adding that their generosity has "blown me away".

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