Click here to go straight to my Pots of Love Shop
Total amount raised to date: £661.64
About the Pots of Love fundraiser
Over the past year I have been hard at work learning about and exploring the amazing and very varied process involved in creating pots and other ceramic pieces. This process inevitably results in an accumulation of pots of various shapes, sizes and colours. Of course, these pieces are far from perfect and some may be heavier than they should be or a bit wonky. Some may make Keith Brymer Jones weep (and not in a good way) but I just cannot bear to send them off to the local recycling centre! Instead, I discovered that these could instead, present a fundraising opportunity.
I have chosen a fundraising cause that is very close to my heart following the loss of a very dear partner and soulmate in 2020. Clare Young will be best known as the driving force behind the Work of Heart Garden, an amazing life-size knitted installation created with a large army of volunteers to raise over £50k for the Sure Ryder Hospice at Leckhampton Court, Cheltenham who provide excellent hospice care for the terminally-ill as well as bereavement support for partners and families.
Following the loss of her husband Ken to cancer in 2015, Clare Young was encouraged to take up knitting as a means of helping her though her bereavement. As a result of this suggestion, she picked up her knitting needles and, along with an army of like-minded knitters, managed to create a large knitted installation in Ken’s memory – the Work of Heart Garden was born!
Clare in her Work of Heart garden at the RHS Malvern show in 2018
Clare’s Work of Heart garden quickly attracted a lot of local media attention and was displayed at Gloucester Cathedral, the RHS Malvern Flower Show in 2018 as well as at Sue Ryder Hospice events. Clare’s efforts also resulted in her being awarded with the JustGiving Creative Fundraiser on the year – 2018. Unfortunately, Clare lost her brave fight against cancer in 2020, but despite the challenges of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the Sue Ryder hospice at Leckhampton was there for her too. It was not long after her passing that her 50k for Ken fundraising drive hit its target, a fitting legacy for an amazing woman.
Clare with her JustGiving Creative Fundraiser 2018 award
However, although hospice care provided by Sue Ryder is free, it costs £3.6 million per year to provide it, which equates to £10,000 per day.
Therefore as a small gesture of my support for the amazing hospice services Sue Ryder continues to provide, I will be donating all proceeds from the sale of my charity pots to the hospice directly to the Sue Ryder charity and will update this page to keep everyone up to date with amounts raised to date. As I continue to learn and practice ceramics, I will continue to add new pots to raise money.
If you’d like to help me to raise much-needed funds for the Sue Ryder Leckhampton Court hospice in memory of Clare, please visit my Pots for Charity page at my Folksy store.
If however, the pots I have for sale are not quite your thing (don’t worry, I won’t take it personally!), then why not donate directly to Clare’s charity via the Clare Young muchloved memorial page.
Many thanks for your support!