SHE'S always wanted to be Princess Rapunzel - but now six-year-old Gracie-Mai Fagan is bracing herself to have her prized knee-length locks chopped off in a fundraising drive in memory of her beloved great grandfather.

The little girl came up with the idea after the death, at the age of 74, of Fred Oakes, of Rubery, from pancreatic cancer at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital on December 2.

"Her brown hair is extremely long because Rapunzel is her favourite princess - but we'd talked about whether she should have it cut," said Gracie's mother, Rebecca Goodenough, aged 25, of Northfield.

"Off her own bat, she said she would like to raise money by having it cut for charity and suggested we should raise it for her great grandad's charity.

"She used to call him Grandad Freddo because he used to wait for her with a chocolate bar.

"She taught him how to use computer tablets - she was very close to him and they idolised each other.

"Now he's gone she calls him the Man on the Moon."

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When Gracie has her tresses chopped, the hair - expected to be around half of its current 3ft length- will be donated to the Little Princess Trust, which makes wigs for children undergoing cancer treatment.

Her mum is looking for a venue to stage a fun day, during which the hair cut will take place, and money raised will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in memory of Mr Oakes.

D-Day for Gracie's long locks is likely to be over Easter at the end of March.

Miss Goodenough has also launched a Facebook page called "Gracie's big cut" and posted a video of her daughter on various social media sites to raise awareness of her daughter's effort.

"It's had 4,000 views in 48 hours," said Miss Goodenough, who is engaged to marry Gracie's father, Sam Fagan, whose mother, Sharon Alcock, owns Gracie-Mai's tea room in New Road, Rubery.