A BRAVE little girl who won a modelling contract despite losing all her hair and eyebrows has inspired her grandmother to speak out publicly for the first time about her own alopecia.

Five-year-old Sydney Caraher and her nan Sue Cunliffe, both from Upton, have joined forces to raise awareness about the stress-related condition that affects them both.

Sue began losing her hair after the death of her husband, a year after Sydney’s hair started to fall out following an operation to remove a pen from her nose.

Until Sydney – a pupil at Overchurch Infants School – won a modelling contract with leading agency Frame through a competition at Pyramids Shopping Centre, Sue had been too embarrassed to speak out.

They're now both raising awareness for Alopecia UK, a charity which has helped Sydney to cope with her condition.

Nan Sue, an orthopaedic nurse at Arrowe Park Hospital, said she decided to speak publicly about their trauma of her own hair loss after seeing her brave granddaughter shine in the limelight.

The 53-year-old said: “It just shows you can be beautiful with or without hair. She is such a happy little girl and I hope winning this improves her confidence.

"If this can be achieved then she can deal with life's stressful situations and get her hair back."

Sue and Sydney have been through an emotional journey together, both losing their hair due to stress, both going wig shopping together and learning to cope with people's reactions to how they look.

Sue said: "At first it was a patch the size of about a fifty pence piece that I lost, then it all came out.

"It was the stress of losing my husband Geoffrey, he had a triple heart attack aged 49, and then ten years later he had a stroke and died, in Arrowe Park hospital where I work, and I think I just couldn't cope."

Sue's hair is now starting to re-grow, and she says using exercise to reduce stress is a big help.

In the meantime she tried wigs, but has abandoned those as they are too uncomfortable, and either uses a bandana, hat or goes bare headed instead. She had her eyebrows tattooed to feel more comfortable.

 "Alopecia can be a very cruel condition. You know when you walk down the street everyone is going to stare at you, and some people ask if you've got cancer," said Sue.

"My friends will apologise when they are talking about their hair, or going to the hairdressers. 

"It is something I miss as it feels good having you hair done, and always made me feel confident after I visited the hairdressers.

"It's the little things that you take for granted that you miss, especially being a woman.”

Sue added: "It took a long time for me to accept myself when I looked in the mirror, but now I've come to terms with it, and I say: 'This is me'.

"It's traumatic enough for me to go through it, but you don't want your granddaughter to go through the same thing. If there was a cure I'd like Syd to be able to have it."

Alopecia, a form of hair loss often caused by stress, affects around one in a thousand people, including children.

Sydney first started losing her hair at the age of two.  

Doctors believe the stress of an operation trigger her first bout of alopecia.

Then, when she turned three, her parents decided to try and part her with her dummy but her body reacted to the stress by rejecting her hair - this time the eyebrows and eyelashes.

By the time Sydney was four and needed grommets to improve her hearing, her parents suspected the operation might trigger the same reaction in their little girl, but were not prepared for the extent of it.

Over a period of four months Sydney’s hair continued to come out leaving her eventually with so little that for a while she thought she was turning in to a boy.

Sydney’s mum and dad Sarah and Dave are delighted that Sue has joined their daughter in trying to raise awareness of the condition.

Sales assistant Sarah said: “Mum never wanted to speak about it before, but I think seeing Sydney in the media because of the Pyramids model competition has given her a lot of encouragement.

“They’ve been through everything and Sydney dotes on her nan, so it’s lovely they are both trying to raise awareness together.”

For more information about Alopecia UK visit alopecia.org.uk or find them on Facebook or Twitter: @alopecia_UK