Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As most of you will know I have had a passion for wildlife my whole life, which has fueled my love for travel, weird and wonderful pets, and is the reason I have spent the best part of 20 years working as an ecologist.

Many of you will also have noticed that I have an awful lot of hair on my head - the result of three years' growth, which began at the start of lockdown in 2020. Back then I had the idea of repeating a sponsored hair cut that I did in January 2013, where I asked people to sponsor me to cut my hair for the Asian elephant charity Elephant family. Thanks to the amazing generosity of so many friends and colleagues I managed to raise £812 for the charity, and subsequently donated the cut hair to Little Princess Trust, who do incredible work providing free real hair wigs to children and young people, up to 24 years, who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment or other conditions.

In order to make their wigs, Little Princess Trust requests that the donated hair is ideally 30cm long (excluding any damaged ends), so this time I have grown my hair for an additional year, to ensure I can make the biggest difference possible.

Why orangutans? Well, many years ago I was fortunate enough to spend four amazing weeks living in the Sumatran rainforest assisting a team of Indonesian researchers in carrying out a daily biodiversity census. As part of that work I was lucky enough to see wild orangutans, both in the forest and passing through our camp, on a fairly regular basis. They totally stole my heart. Sadly, I also saw in person the devastating effects of illegal logging, being carried out by local people who, at the time, didn't have a lot of other options to provide for their families.

That experience led to me to choose to start supporting (in 2005) the WWF's orangutan campaign. Whilst the WWF is an excellent charity, for this fundraiser I want to make sure the money I raise goes to a specific cause, so I've picked the Orangutan Foundation, whose mission is to save orangutans by protecting their tropical forest habitat, working with local communities, and promoting research and education.

As their founder and director, Ashley Leiman, says:

Orangutan Foundation's approach goes beyond that of purely protecting orangutans. It recognizes that orangutans are essential to their habitat, which is unique in its rich biodiversity and is crucial for local communities, who are as dependent on the forest as the orangutans.

The Orangutan Foundation actively protects 1,745,400 acres of tropical forest across three reserves, which are home to around 8,100 orangutans. Since the launch of their Forest Restoration Program, they have now planted over 112,000 tree saplings in areas that have been damaged by fires. I really love their approach to conservation and the fact that by protecting these reserves they are helping not only orangutans, but a vast interconnected array of other species that use the same habitat.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

To give you an idea of the change you can make:

- £5 will buy seedlings to be grown in their tree nurseries

- £10 will help provide medical care for rescued orangutans

- £15 will contribute towards a day's salary for one of their guard post staff

I love having long hair and after three years it feels like a big part of me, so I have struggled with this decision, but ultimately these two causes are worth it. The big hair cut will take place towards the end of July.

IF WE MANAGE TO REACH THE FUNDRAISING TARGET, I WILL DONATE A FURTHER £100

...so please, donate what you can and let's do something good together.