Christine’s charity face masks for all

I’ve always raised money for charity but haven’t done much since I retired. After speaking to my children we wanted to raise money for St Oswald’s as they are a local charity that means a lot to us. Doing this has really gave me some self-worth back and has improved my self-esteem, I love being able to do something for someone else.

I started to make the masks for adults and my sons and daughter-in-law were sharing it on their Facebook pages. People pay around £5 per mask and I have so far raised £750! The response has been amazing and I’ve even sent them all around the world, to Paris, America, Canada and even sunny Cornwall.

My grandchildren love the masks and wanted some too so I started to make smaller sizes for different ages. I think the youngest child I’ve made one for was 3 years old. I have so many sizes available now, my granddaughter has Generation dolls and wanted to play a role play game where they go to a supermarket. To make it as real as possible, she wanted her dolls to have masks too, so I made some for them to wear.

I’m currently retired but I was employed with Barclays Bank. Once a year I get to apply for matched funding up to £750 for any fundraising activity I organise, it’s Barclays’ way of giving back to the community. This means that whatever I raise will be matched pound for pound by Barclays which will double my total for the hospice! It's great to see Barclays still supporting not only their current employees but their retired staff too.

Doing this has really gave me a sense of pride and pleasure too, I’m definitely going to keep fundraising and trying to help the local community.