A CWMBRAN woman has raised around £600 by shaving her head for charity in aid of friend who is recovering from leukaemia.

Miriam Shepard, 54, took part in the fundraising act to raise money for DKMS, a charity which aims to find matching donors for all blood cancer patients.

Ms Shepard's friend Paula Wallace, a senior neo-natal nurse at the Royal Gwent, underwent a stem cell transplant in her fight against leukaemia after a donor was found in Germany - as the Argus reported earlier this week.

Ms Wallace, a mother-of-two, was diagnosed with the illness in December and has since then undergone multiple cycles of chemotherapy.

After seeing her friend battling several bouts with the aggressive treatment, Ms Shepard felt she had to honour her friend in some way.

She said: "She's [Ms Wallace] lost her hair several times during her treatment so I just wanted to do it as a mark of respect for all of the things she has gone through."

More than 7,000 people registered as potential stem cell donors for Ms Wallace after a campaign was launched by her friend Alison Davies with charity Delete Blood Cancer UK.

And now Ms Wallace looks to be on the road to recovery after after a man from Germany agreed to donate his stem cells.

"She laughed when she pictures of my new look," admitted Ms Shepard.

"While we've raised a lot so far a lot of people said they wouldn't donate until I got my head shaved, so hopefully there will be more to come.

Despite donor registration costing around £70, Ms Shepard is keen for others to follow in the footsteps of Ms Wallace's donor.

Ms Shepard added: "If you're going to be a donor you have to have swabs taken, which cost quite a lot of money.

"However the more people that register, the higher the chance that matches will be out there."

To donate to Ms Shepard’s campaign, visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Alison-Davies21