Andrea Childs has currently raised over £800 for Cure Leukaemia, with a further £800 raised for another local blood cancer charity, through selling sunflower seeds.

Andrea is raising funds and selling sunflower seeds in honour of her daughter Beth who sadly passed away from leukaemia, and all of the other parents and children they met while Beth was receiving treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

Andrea spoke about how the scheme of selling sunflower seeds began:

“Beth and Ellie met when they were both together in the Young Persons unit at the QE Hospital in Birmingham receiving treatment for leukaemia.
“Another parent Rachel Lord, whose son Callum is still 6 years on fighting this evil disease, grew some sunflowers and called them her YPU sunflowers in tribute to Beth, Ellie, Marcus and another Callum, who all lost their battles to leukaemia.”

Andrea spoke about how the sunflower seeds originally came from another parent, and how 4 years later, the seeds are still going strong:

“Rachel has kept the seeds each year and she gave me a packet 4 years which I grew in my garden each year. I now harvest the seeds and sell them for these two amazing charities.”
“The seeds we are selling now are ‘great great grandchildren seeds’ of Rachel’s original flowers as I grow 20-30 each year and save all the seeds to resell.”

Andrea is selling the seeds for £10 a packet, and has currently raised £1670 to date, with the money raised being split between Cure Leukaemia and A Gift To Lift. As you can see, there are still plenty of seeds left, and there’s still lots of time to plant and grow your sunflowers.