Welcome to my JustGiving page!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

At the start of the UK lockdown 2020 I was a freelance costume dresser for TV, suddenly without work to take up my time I fell back onto my creativity and crafting to help keep my mental health in good shape. To ensure I stuck to this I used Instagram as a daily platform to show what I had made that day. All of my creations on Instagram are completely random and never intended for sale purposes. It was merely a creative diary for me to keep from my time in lockdown. A few people suggested my crafts were good enough to sell and so a couple of weeks ago I had the idea to potentially sell some of my makes for donations to charity. However crafting and procrastination set in and I swiftly forgot about this idea, until now.

The recent murder of George Floyd and the media coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement has made me look at myself in a way that I never had before. I have always been saddened that racism exists and angry at the injustice of it. However I have then not known what else to do beyond the event, documentary or news report. Like so many people I thought not being racist was enough, it isn’t, I need to be ANTI-Racist. Just like being anti-bullying, anti-homelessness, anti-domestic abuse and so on.

Using the blackouttuesday hashtag on my social media was the start of me educating myself in a more proactive way. This square is my reminder to keep informing myself about the Black Lives Matter movement in the same way that I do about other just causes and to work towards a better world.

After watching the social media post of a friend discussing his views on the Black Lives Matter movement and talking with him, the idea to sell some of my crafts for donations popped back into my head. It saddens me to admit this but without the last week’s events I would not have thought to look beyond the charities I already had in mind. This is a good example of the way the world can be changed for the better and I hope doing my part no matter how small will help.

Therefore by selling my random creations I can hopefully make a difference. After a few days of research online I read about a charity based in London that I felt is doing amazing work in the community. The charity is using programmes and activities led by black men to uplift the community and empower their youth to be the best version of themselves. This is achieved through mentoring, education, economic empowerment, health and wellness. Therefore my first target of £100 will go to the charity 100 Black Men of London. Please pop over to the website to see for yourself the work that they are doing http://100bml.org/about/.

I hope by using my creativity in this way I will have inspired you to read, educate and maybe even get creating!

Please note: As stated on my instagram page, donations made for the purpose of purchasing craft items from myself should only be made if the item is being posted within the United Kingdom.

If you really don't want to have one of my crafts forced upon you but you do want to donate please do!