Hi!
I am contacted regularly from fundraisers asking if I could donate prizes for their charities. Previously I have always helped where I could however due to personal reasons I have decided to start fundraising for my own chosen charity – the Lymphoma charity and Haematology Unit at James Cook University Hospital who looked after my nanna during the final stage of her life. Turning down charity requests isn’t something that would make any person feel good about but going forward I will be fundraising only for my own chosen charity.
My reason for fundraising is due to losing a significant person in my life only a matter of months ago. My nanna, Joan Davies was diagnosed with Lymphoma in her early 80s having led a healthy life until then. At the age of 82 she had battled 6 rounds of chemotherapy successfully with dignity and bravery and went in to remission last year however in November 2016 she became ill again very quickly and spent the last couple of her weeks being cared for the staff in the Haematology Unit at James Cook University Hospital.
Some might say she was lucky getting to her age without any health issues until that time – that’s very true. She was very lucky in that respect. She lived her life being popular, worked well past retirement age, loved dancing at the social club and went out on the bus every day with her hair and makeup done and loved coordinating outfits and jewellery and made sure she had a purpose to her day, even if it was just going out for a loaf of bread.
Grandparents are always an important part of life. I grew up with having only one surviving grandparent (my dad’s parents both died before I was born and my granddad (Joan’s husband) died when I was very young – so my nanna was a huge part of my life. She even lived with us for a while after losing my granddad. We were very close and her absence is felt every day by everyone in the family.
So while there are so many worth while charities I would love to work with and help out unfortunately as a business I can’t donate to everyone and there is no charity that I now feel more strongly about than the one that has affected (and helped) my lovely nanna and my family.
I hope you understand my reason for declining any such charity requests – I wish you well in any fundraising requests but I will be putting any small change and tips I receive in to a charity jar in my studio – donations from clients are obviously welcome for anyone who wishes to donate however there is no obligation or pressure. It will be there for those wish to donate. I understand we all have our own preferred charities that we like to support and mine might not be yours – that’s fine đ
Thanks, Gemma x