A YOUNG woman from Sauchie has raised thousands of pounds for charity by completing a gruelling walk and cutting a huge 18 inches off her hair.

Louise Martin recently took part in her fifth half MoonWalk, a 13.5mile night-time trek, in order to raise money for Walk the Walk, a cancer charity.

As well as doing the walk, Louise decided she wanted to do extra and decided that she would cut her long locks – adding extra inches for every monetary milestone her fundraising reached.

After both events, Louise has now raised an incredible £2,500 with donations still rolling in.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Louise said she was inspired to do more after meeting walkers while volunteering at Glasgow's Commonwealth Games in 2014.

She said: "I have done The MoonWalk Scotland for the previous four years as well as this year's.

"Through volunteering for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, I met many interesting people and I was lucky enough to be chosen to be introduced to the queen.

"Two of the other volunteers really stood out: Val, a hilarious and lovely woman who is a breast cancer survivor and Linda Lou, who just did her 10th Moonwalk.

"They both inspired me to do my first MoonWalk back in 2015 and I've done it every year since then."

Like most people, Louise knew people who were affected by cancer, which is why she decided to go the extra mile and have her hair chopped.

She said: "I knew people affected by breast cancer, and other cancers, and wanted to do something to support them.

"This year, I went all-out with my fundraising by cutting off my hair to raise money – I had about 20 inches of hanging hair to donate and decided that the more money I raised, the more hair I would chop off.

"The hair will be donated to the Little Princess Trust. It's been exciting for me as I have had long hair for over a decade, the last time it was anything more than trimmed was 15 years ago.

"The Little Princess Trust make wigs for children with cancer that have lost their hair. The minimum donation length is seven inches and I decided that if I reached £500, I would donate the seven, but for every £300 I raise over that, I will cut off an extra inch.

"All money raised will go to Walk the Walk who support breast cancer research, provide scalp cooling units, Maggie Centres across Scotland and so much more as well."

Louise, who is a whisky blender to trade, was joined along the way by her mum, although she did the 6.5-mile version due to her diabetes, which gave the 23-year-old an extra bit of motivation along the way.

For anyone who wishes to donate to Louise's cause, they can at moonwalkscotland2019.everydayhero.com/uk/acrocomic