If you were to ask me what my highlight of the week was, I simply wouldn’t be able to pick just one; it was an entire week of highs, which I wanted to share:
- Press Day and meeting the VIP Super Kids and their mums: Joseph, Isobel and Olivia (aged 2, 4 and 18), along with David Walliams OBE, who was just lovely: interested, sincere and great with the kids too.
- Meeting a whole list of special visitors to the garden: some of the people who do so much for Supershoes, and for children with cancer: Steven Bryne MP, David Gathercole, Assistant Director CLIC Sargent, Brian McClusky, CEO Office, Dr Chrisy Thirwell Oncologist, Julian Smith Super Fundraiser, Lyn CLIC Sargent Social Worker
- Meeting Super parents of children: Super Sheena’s mum and dad, Super Lauren’s mum and dad (Rupert & Claire), Super Ru’s mum and dad, and having them as guests to sit in the garden.
- Welcoming the general public to our garden and speaking in person to lots of people. This is something I don’t often get to do, and I just love sharing the Supershoes message.
- Listening to the Super Team telling anyone that would listen all about Supershoes, how it works, the Super children it supports, and doing all of this with such passion. I know how passionate I feel about Supershoes, and it was brilliant hearing that passion echoed.
- Taking part in the big plant sale at the end of the week, where we raised £1123 for Supershoes, and seeing how happy it made people to have a little part of the garden to take away. Our garden truly tapped into people’s emotions: it made them smile as well as cry, and we were delighted to see the effect that it had on everyone.
Some dreams are so amazing that you don’t want them to end, aren’t they? Watching our dream garden come to life (see our time-lapse video here) being surrounded by all those beautiful colours, sculptures and That Wall for the week, has taken me through a whole range of emotions: happy, blessed, moved to tears, excited, energised and above all, hopeful. Well, what else would you expect from a garden called Laced with Hope? I’m hopeful that we have enlightened and made thousands of people aware of our mission. I’m hopeful that we made those people think and talk to others, spreading the word even further. I’m hopeful that we will be able to use our Chelsea experience as a springboard to get Supershoes to even greater success in our battle against childhood cancer.
And now it’s over. Months of planning, mountains of paperwork, hundreds of emails, phone calls, meetings. And now I can say I’ve well and truly woken up! It’s back to talking to parents, sending out shoes and planning our next events over the summer. We’re on a roll. Watch out world!
With peace, love and gratitude
Sarah
