FOUR school boys have raked in thousands of pounds after shaving their heads for a hospital charity on Easter Sunday.

Charlie Morton, Rory Harrison, Samuel Stanhope and Dray Weight who attend Halterworth Primary School, Halterworth Lane, raised £3,522 in support of Southampton Hospital Charity.

Now the 11-year-olds have smashed their initial target of £300 in a bid to help supply food, iPads and tablets for hospital staff while they continue to battle the killer virus.

Speaking on BBC Radio Solent on Easter Monday, Charlie said: "It was quite late at night, I was about to go to bed and my mum was saying she wanted to cut my hair.

"She is a doctor, not a hairdresser, and I thought she would do something like a bowl cut, but I thought if I shaved it off it would not grow back weirdly."

Charlie, who lives in Romsey and came up with the idea, added: "I couldn’t believe it until I felt my head, it was felt really weird and the best thing is I don’t need to use any shampoo now."

Rory, from North Baddesley, said the boys started off with a grade four haircut and slowly progressed down to grade one, except for Charlie who went "straight to grade one".

He added: "I didn't really notice my hair being cut off, but it was chopping into my hands as I was sat down and it was really thick."

Commenting on how much money the boys raised so far, Samuel, from Rownhams, said: "It is crazy, I never thought this would every happen.

"I looked at myself in the mirror and thought 'when did I decided this was going to happen'?

"I was so confused it actually happened, but I feel proud of myself."

Dray's mum, Sharon Weight, said: "Dray has given me hourly updates on the money raised and he gets more and more excited every time."

The mother from North Baddesley added: "He literally bounced off the walls when it hit the £3,000 mark."

Intensive care practitioner at Southampton General Hospital, Donna Rawlings, thanked the boys for their "lovely" act of kindness.

She said: "As nurses we have given our careers to care for others, because this is what we love to do and it gives us so much pride.

"These are such difficult times and we are faced with challenges and struggles that we could never imagine. "It is gestures like this that will get us through our darkest days."

All of the boys had their heads shaved at separate homes to ensure they did not break lockdown rules set by the government.

To donate to the boys' JustGiving page, follow https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/baldkids.