Parkes Elvis Festival Junior Priscilla winner Izzy Kelly cuts off hair for kids with cancer

Wearing a white dress with a black bow and a jet black beehive wig, Izzy Kelly - a year six student at the Dubbo Christian School - took home the title of Junior Priscilla look-a-like at the Parkes Elvis Festival over the weekend.

This is the third time Izzy has entered the competition and mum, Catherine Kelly, said it was a last-minute decision.

"She was also successful when she entered the competition in 2020 as well. We didn't do it last year and the year before that it was cancelled - but we came back again this year and we loved it," Ms Kelly said.

"Izzy was actually very anxious before the event and this year she said she wasn't going to enter. But then on the Friday night before she said 'okay, I'm going to do it'!"

Ms Kelly said Izzy decided to enter the competition for the first time in 2019 after the family first attended the festival the year before and loved "every minute of it".

"When we went to the festival for the first time she saw all the girls on stage and said 'mum, mum' I want to do that," she said.

"She did enter the next year and didn't place, but after that year she saw what the winner wore and she knew what she wanted to do."

"So we got a black wig and a dress and learned to do the makeup and everything, and that's what we did in 2020 and she won."

Ms Kelly said she's very proud of her daughter for having the courage to get up on stage in front of so many people at the festival but is even more proud of her daughter's charitable endeavours.

Last week, in the lead up to the festival, Izzy cut off 36 centimetres of her hair to be donated to Wigs4Kids, an initiative by charitable organisation Kids With Cancer.

With the help of donated hair and funds, the organisation gives Australian-made wigs free-of-charge to young cancer patients across NSW.

"I'm so proud of her - she's quite determined when she sets her mind to something. Every year she does a project for charity or a fundraiser," Ms Kelly said.

"This is just what she's done to kick-off the year and now she'll look at whatever other project she'll get involved in for the rest of the year."

Izzy chose the 4th of January as the day to chop off her locks as it is the wedding anniversary of her great grandmother and late great grandfather, who recently passed away after losing his second battle to cancer.

"Unfortunately we have had cancer go through our family and that was something that really felt close to her. She's been wanting to cut her hair for a while so I suggested we work towards something like that," Ms Kelly said.

"She's been growing it out for about a year now and she's never had her hair this short before. But I'm so proud of her because she has stuck with it and she has grown her hair and looked after it."

If you would like to support Izzy's fundraising efforts for Wigs4Kids, you can sponsor her via the Kids With Cancer website.

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