Two mothers who desperately wanted to help Carlisle toddler Stanley Dalton have shaved her heads in a bid to raise as much money as they could.

Jenny Nichols and Chantelle Slater were devastated to hear the two-year-old’s only hope of survival was to travel to Singapore for life-saving treatment.

His parents, Georgia Brecken and Lee Dalton need to raise £500,000 and set up the Justgiving page Save Our Stan.

The two women had never met but were brought together by their desire to help and have raised more than £1,500. They each braved the shave simultaneously at home and were joined by their own children.

Jenny, 36, of Raffles Avenue, Carlisle, said: “I read about it and I thought, ‘I need to do something'.

“I thought I’d shave my head and see how much money I could get.

“As a mum, it really hit home. I couldn’t even afford to give them £20, so I needed to raise the money. Now I can give them more than £1,000, that’s something I could never do.”

The mum-of-three, who works with Stanley’s uncle, Marcus Oliver, at Carlisle’s Hallmark Hotel, said she was “gutted” to hear about Stanley’s illness last year and even more heartbroken to find out he’d relapsed in June.

When she told her five-year-old son Bobby, she would be shaving her head to help Stanley, he asked if he could help too.

“I said Stanley needs to go away to get medicine to make him better,” said Jenny. “He said, ‘with the money we make, we can get him some toys and that will make him feel better,’ and that broke my heart.”

Jenny didn’t expect to raise even £100 and has been amazed at how much people have sponsored, with the total steadily topping £1,500. She promised to go down a guard every time more donations came in and ended up with a number one. She’d even said if her total topped £2,000 she’d shave her head with a Bic razor.

“The amount that’s been raised is amazing but just to know I’ve given some, I’ve helped him,” she added.

Chantelle, 33, of Kingfisher Park, who knows Stanley’s mum Georgia from school, was joined by her son Joseph, 14.

She said it is a race against time to urgently raise the funds for Stanley.

“£500,000 is such a massive figure. Putting yourself in Georgia’s shoes, that must just feel impossible to come up with that sum in such a short space of time,” said Chantelle. “We haven’t got much time left now. He has to be well enough to be able to fly.”

She added: “We never expected the support and the donations and how much everybody got behind us. When Carlisle comes together, it really comes together.”

Their sponsorship money will be added to the Save Our Stan fund which has now reached more than £245,000. To donate visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/saveourstan1.