Nine-year-old will pay tribute to gran by giving her long locks the chop as part of Shave for a Cure at Carlton School in Whanganui

Maddison Williams with a picture of gran Derene Mardon and a little piece of her inside Oscar the owl. Photo / Stuart Munro

Maddison Williams has long blond hair flowing down past her shoulders that she has been growing since 2016.

Soon it will all be gone.

The nine-year-old is participating in Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand's Shave for a Cure and at the start of Shave Week on March 18, it's getting the chop.

At her family home, Maddison produces a soft toy, a little blue and white owl. Her gran's ashes are in it, she says.

"My gran died from cancer," Maddison says.

"I didn't get to spend that much time with her so I want to do this because of what she went through."

When she says gran, Maddison is referring to her great grandmother Derene Mardon who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in April 2016. It was terminal.

Maddison, sister Lacie, brother Korban, dad Brian and mum Emma (Derene's granddaughter) had three months with her before she died after her 80th birthday.

Maddison is not sure who will do the cutting yet, but it will be at Carlton School which she attends and they are putting on a mufti day to raise funds for her cause.

"In my class that I'm doing it in front of there's about, I would say, 29 students," Maddison says.

"I told a couple of friends today and they asked me why I was doing it. I told them I was doing it because my gran died and I've been wanting to do it for ages."

Funds are being raised for the cause on shaveforacure.co.nz where typing Maddison's name into the search box at the top right will reveal her page.

So far 18 people have donated $470 which is almost half of Maddison's targeted
$1000.

Emma Williams says her daughter began asking to take part in Shave for a Cure about a year after Derene died.

"I kept putting her off because I thought she was too young and then we finally gave in when she asked late last year when I mentioned haircuts," Williams says.

"That's who she is. She's like that with everything. I knew from the first time she asked, she would keep asking until I said she could do it. I'm really proud of her."

The Williams family are also looking into whether Maddison's hair can be purchased by Freedom Wigs, who take hair with certain requirements and produce wigs for people with a range of issues.