He’s a familiar face to Cork coffee drinkers.

But Ballintemple barista James O’Carroll has been inundated with support for kindhearted folks from all walks of life after announcing he plans to cut off his long hair to raise money for two important charities.

The Cork coffee slinger and DJ (29) has raised more than €1,700 after he set up a GoFundMe account to benefit the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. He will also be donating the hair he has been growing for eight years to a charity that creates wigs for children undergoing cancer treatment.

“I’ve been growing my hair out since I was living in Canada in 2016, apart from the odd maintenance trim,” James told Yay Cork.

“I’ve always worn my hair tied up because of how thick it is and people are always surprised by the length of it whenever I took it down. When I knew it was time for a change, I had always known I was going to donate as much as I could to the Little Princess Trust as they are always looking for donor hair to create wigs for children and young people who have lost their hair because of cancer treatment and other illnesses that cause hair loss.

“When I decided to do that, I felt it wasn’t enough and that I saw an opportunity to raise some funds for another charity close to my heart. This of course being the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. The PCRF are a non-governmental, not-for-profit charity established in 1991 that have been hands-on in children’s welfare in the Middle East.

“I’ve found their work to be inspiring and knew now more than ever they could use additional funding given the current situation in Gaza.”

‘I cannot thank the people who have donated enough’

James says he has been “blown away” by the support so far.

“Within minutes the first donation appeared at €50, which was nearly half of my target goal. A couple of minutes later I had raised my goal until that was met, again only a short time after.”

In just six hours, James had received €1,000.

“To raise over a thousand euros was never something I could have expected but to have achieved it in little more than an afternoon was a complete shock,” he said.

“Speaking on that I cannot thank the people who have donated enough. People from all walks of life. Of course, many of my close friends and family had donated generously but as well as that I had seen the names of some of my schoolmates, some of whom I have seen in over a decade. As well as that there are people I have not met yet, all of which made possible by the amazing friends of mine who shared the link and spread the word wide.”

James plans to keep the link active right up to the scalping and hopes to use his buzz cut to garner some awareness for the two charities he’s chosen.

You can donate to James’ campaign here.