Wendy Tarplee-Morris, one of the co-founders of The Little Princess Trust, has been awarded an MBE in the King’s New Year Honours list.
The award was made in recognition of Wendy’s services to children and young people with cancer.
The Little Princess Trust was founded in Hereford in 2005 in memory of Wendy’s daughter, Hannah Tarplee.
A year earlier, Hannah had been diagnosed with a Wilms Tumour and the loss of her hair was especially traumatic.
Wendy and Hannah’s father, Simon, had struggled to find a wig suitable for Hannah when she underwent treatment, and felt the most fitting tribute to the five-year-old would be a charity dedicated to providing wigs for children.
In the first years of the charity, Wendy dedicated much of her available time helping to build the charity.
Phil Brace, Chief Executive of The Little Princess Trust, said it was this dedication that helped the charity grow and develop – and today the charity helps around 2,000 children and young people every year through its free wig service and has now helped nearly 18,000 children and young people in total.
The Little Princess Trust, which moved into its own purpose-built home – The Hannah Tarplee Building – in Hereford city centre in 2022, is also now one of the UK’s largest charity funders of childhood cancer research.
In her current role, Wendy ensures the children and young people with hair loss helped by the charity receive the very best service available.
She also liaises with the childhood cancer researchers that The Little Princess Trust funds to search for kinder and more effective treatments for all childhood cancers.
Mr Brace said the honour is a “reward for Wendy’s selfless work and dedication to help so many children and young people”.
“She is such a modest person but all of us associated with LPT know how much she deserves this wonderful accolade,” he added.
“What she has achieved in memory of her daughter Hannah is incredible and I know she inspires everyone associated with our charity every day.”
On receiving the award, Wendy said: “I am honoured to receive this recognition, but I can never forget the huge personal trauma and how it affected my family having lost Hannah, but I am so aware of how many families are still being affected by childhood cancer today.
“This is what drives us on to do more, so I would like to accept this honour on behalf of all the families affected by childhood cancer.
“I would also like to thank everyone who has supported The Little Princess Trust over the past 20 years, particularly my fellow co-founders Simon Tarplee and Tim Lowe without whom the charity would not be here today.”
