Raising vital funds? We have it covered! (From Worcester News)

Raising vital funds? We have it covered!

1:30pm Tuesday 16th October 2012 in News By James Connell

BEAUTIFUL hand-made quilts could feather someone’s nest – and prove to be a nest egg for the breast unit in Worcester.

Three luxury quilts are being auctioned off at the Charles Hastings Edu-cation Centre, near Wor-cestershire Royal Hospital, Worcester.

Organiser June King hopes the raffle on Wednesday, October 31, will help raise at least £2,000 for the £1.8 million Worcestershire Breast Unit Campaign, which aims to create a one-stop shop for breast care patients at 220 Newtown Road, next to the education centre.

Mrs King became aware of the luxury items when the Three Pears Quilters Group of Worcestershire held an exhibition of their work last July with a large section devoted to quilts made for Project Linus UK.

These quilts are donated to neonatal, sick and traumatised babies, children and teenagers in order to provide them with a sense of comfort, security and something personal during their stay in hospital and as a token to take home.

Mrs King, a former personal assistant to the professor of medicine and head of the professorial unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, is a patron of the breast unit campaign.

Together with her husband Dr Stuart King, a retired GP who ran Worcester’s diabetes clinic for 33 years, they raised £10,000 for the Charles Hastings Education Centre and believe they have raised £7,000 for the breast unit.

Mrs King said: “I have two friends I have been closely involved with who have had breast cancer and I nursed one through terminal illness.

“I thought the breast unit was a brilliant idea because everything is on one site.

“My father said, ‘Don’t complain about your community if you don’t put anything into it’.

“I have taken that very seriously.

“I asked if they could donate a quilt for me to raffle for the campaign as I thought this would be something unique.

“Lynne Adams, who is the coordinator, said that she had contacted all the quilters groups in Worcestershire asking if they would make squares for a quilt and the project took off.

“Within a year Lynne had accumulated 310 blocks from colleagues and their friends – some from as far afield as Wales and Devon. Lynne and some of her like-minded friends assembled and made up the three exquisite quilts.”

Raffle tickets for the quilts are £1 each and anyone wishing to buy one, or prepared to sell them, can obtain them from June King, Old Road North, Kempsey, Worcestershire, WR5 3JZ or via e-mail at sounion@usa.net