Words by Smiley Team
It’s one year since the Prime Minister announced the UK’s first lockdown in March 2020, which fell in the middle of Marie Curie’s Great Daffodil Appeal. Hannah Taylor, the end-of-life charity’s head of community fundraising North, explained to Smiley News how that difficult period contrasted starkly to this year’s Great Daffodil Appeal, which spans the month of March and helps raise funds for teams of nurses who care for dying people and bereaved family members.
“When I heard we were going into the first lockdown I felt quite helpless and restricted,” Hannah recalled. “We really needed the money that we would usually raise in person in supermarkets and on the streets, or by doing walks or marathons.”
But Hannah quickly turned a difficult situation into a positive one by bringing her own campaign online. Dressed from head to toe in yellow, wearing a daffodil hat and clutching a collection tin, she launched a Facebook Live fundraising drive.
“At first, I had no idea if it would just be me, by myself, staring at a screen with nobody watching,” she remembered.
But then progressively more people joined and the donations started flowing in.
“It was very strange because people were saying things in the comments that they’d usually say in person if I was fundraising outside a supermarket, as I would have done for other years.
“It was also a really lovely way to connect with people when we were not able to connect physically.”
Hannah described how, compared to the Great Daffodil Appeal 2020, fundraisers felt much more prepared to launch online initiatives this year. With virtual quizzes, takeaway teas and cakes, and by displaying a daffodil in their window, fundraisers across the country came up with a whole host of creative alternatives to in-person collections.
Places that are open such as schools and nurseries celebrated the Great Daffodil Appeal by holding walks and learning about the life of the scientist Marie Curie, whose work contributing to treatments for cancer and other diseases inspires the charity to this day.
People can still purchase a daffodil badge from their online shop, and supermarkets are supporting the cause by offering customers the chance to donate at their checkouts.
Despite fundraisers’ digital efforts, the charity has felt the blows of the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought about a deficit of millions of pounds for the organisation. So donations are more important than ever.
There’s still time to support the charity’s work supporting dying and bereaved people via the Great Daffodil Appeal. Donate here.
