Tuesday 11 January 2011

Happy New Year


Wendy Kemp Jewellery Update

Its been 10 months since my ECHO Heart Collection started. Inspired from a conversation in the school playground with my friend Julie who's son Oscar was born with congenital heart disease. She was looking for ideas for fund raising for ECHO and now 10 months on, the collection has grown to 3 full galleries on my website and has raised £1,642.00. We are delighted and hope that this year we can raise even more money and awareness for this worth while cause.

In the 10 months of making this collection I have had many touching emails from parents with heart babies and heart children and even parents themselves who have had heart surgery. I would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has sent very kind comments about my work. Most of the children are now living very happy full lives. There are however some sad stories. I would like to share a couple of my correspondences with you from Malory and Peter. Thank you Malory and Peter and everyone else who have mentioned their own personal story which makes my work so worth while and keeps me motivated and enthusiastic to help ECHO.
Malory contacted me in October when she came across my website in the ECHO Newsletter. She was looking for a personal pendant in memory of her baby girl Meghan who sadly passed away from Congenital Heart Disease.

'Meghan was my 1st child and sadly passed away from CHD. I am a member of ECHO and it would be my daughters birthday on the 1st November. We only had her for 3 weeks but she made such an impact on all our lives and hearts'. Malory

I designed a special personalised necklace in memory of Megan. On receiving her necklace I was delighted when Malory emailed me.

'Hi Wendy
I've just received my necklace omg its amazing and beautiful and just as I pictured it to be. Thank you so much.
Malory

After asking permission to put the picture of her necklace and mention Meghan on my blog she replied:

'I'm still excited and very much enjoying my necklace I really love it to bits. I would be delighted for you to use it on your blog .ECHO is a very worth while charity. I know in the early days when we found out about Meghan as 1st time parents they were a great support and made coping and understanding Meghan's condition a little easier and being able to chat with other parents made you realise that there are others out there all coping in similar situations and your not alone. They were wonderful help and support and very understanding. There will never be enough words to thank them  for helping us. We are very much supporters of ECHO and are glad and happy that there are people like yourself that are happy to help.
Thank you
Take care and best wishes
Malory '

I was also commissioned by a dad called Peter to make a bracelet which was very personal and special for his wife Kelly this Christmas. Peters daughter is also a heart child born at the Evelina. The bracelet has 'mummy' written on the back and on the front shows his daughters name Eva – short for Evalina who is named after the Evelina Hospital.
When asking permission for the blog, Peter wrote:

'Kelly absolutely loved the bracelet which had her in of tears (good ones) when she read the note that comes with it. She said it was the best present she had ever had (apart form Eva herself) and now wears it all the time.
We know how tough it is for parents with heart babies and there are some terribly sad outcomes, but there are also some incredibly inspiring ones which give us parents hope, such as witnessing how tough and resilient these little ones are. Despite the shock when you find out your baby will be born with Congenital Heart Disease, we consider ourselves one of the lucky ones (ironically). When Eva was born she was monitored very closely but it soon became apparent she was not doing well and so had open heart surgery at just 4 days old, yet she was allowed home within a week of the operation (that’s how long it takes me to get over a cold) which is a testament also to the amazing work they do at the Evelina Hospital. Thanks to them we celebrated Eva’s 1st birthday in December. ' Peter.

 Malory's Necklace and Peter's Bracelet is shown in the images below.

ECHO - The Evelina Children's Heart Organisation is a charity which supports the hundreds of children born with a heart condition and their families who are born at the Evelina Hospital in London.

25% of all sales from the ECHO Heart collections are donated to ECHO.
All the families mention that ECHO really helped them in their times of need. I feel very proud that I have been able to support this worthwhile charity and look forward to another busy year.

I wish you all a very good 2011.
Wendy x