Like most young girls, Opp Elementary School first grader Sara Catherine Sansom loves the story of Rapunzel, the princess known for her long hair. Unlike most young girls, Sara decided her fairytale could wait, opting instead to cut her hair to help kids fighting cancer.

Sara’s mom, Ashton Sansom, said her daughter’s decision to cut nine inches from her hair came seemingly out of the blue.

“She’s never wanted it cut before,” she said. “We would come for haircuts and she would say, ‘Just a trim.’”

Sara said that changed when she read a story that described children who had lost their own hair while battling cancer.

“I read a book, and the two girls in it didn’t have any hair,” Sara said, explaining that one day far into the future, the little girls would have their own hair again in Heaven.

“Now, they’ll have my hair here on Earth,” she said.

Ashton Sansom, along with Grandmother Rebecca Perkins, were on hand Wednesday at Oasis Spa and Salon in Andalusia for Sara’s appointment, and both women agreed her locks were truly given out of love.

“She just has a heart of gold,” Perkins said.

Ashton Sansom said her daughter read the story of the two girls in a Nancy Clancy children’s book.

“After she read it, she just came to us and said she wanted to cut it,” she said. “We’re actually giving it to a program by Pantene called Beautiful Lengths, because you only have to cut eight inches, and Sara didn’t quite have enough for Locks of Love.”

Both mom and grandmother agreed that while the story that prompted Sara to donate her hair may have been fictional, the children who will benefit from her selfless deed are very much real.

Sara is the daughter of Ashton and Ronnie Sansom of Opp.