Hospice volunteer, Margaret Harkins has made an entire flock of Sheep and Highland Cow Doorstops from a design she created. Margaret is part of a group of volunteers who craft items for sale, raising funds for Hospice at Home West Cumbria.

The Hospice Shepherdess Margaret Harkins

The team knit the bodies of the sheep and cows  and stitch the faces making each one individual. Margaret then assembles the doorstop  and gives each one a name tag.

The group have now made more than 800 creating our own Hospice Herd. These have been sold locally, raising an amazing £10,000 in support of our charity.

One of the sheep, Bertie, was created especially for HRH Prince Charles, our patron,  and sent as a gift on the occasion of The Prince of Wales 70th birthday last year. The team were delighted to receive lovely letter of thanks from the palace.

Chairman of the Board, Dr Rob Walker said. “We are so grateful to Margaret and the craft group for creating these practical, popular characters who are helping to raise much needed funds for our charity.

Hospice at Home West Cumbria provides high quality, palliative and end of life care to people living in West Cumbria. We are the only provider of adult hospice services in this area. This means that all funds raised by local people help us to provide care for those in need within their own community. Less than a quarter of our funding comes from the NHS and so we need to raise over £1 million each year to continue to deliver our services.”

STOP PRESS 25/02/19

Margaret and the team have been amazed and overwhelmed by the delightful response and kind messages of support sent to them following the media articles and broadcasts. The news item alone has had over 33K views.

We are unable to take any further requests at the present time.

With more than 100 currently requested from across the globe, the team have asked if we can let you know that they are knitting as fast as they can. Each of the Hospice Herd is handmade with love and that takes time. Baa with us.