Vera Benney, who lives at HC-One’s
Avon Court care home, in Rowden Hill, Chippenham, has raised an astonishing £500 for charity by knitting and selling woollen items to Colleagues, Visitors and Residents.
Vera who is 93, has lived at the 56-bed residential, nursing and nursing dementia care home since May 2021 and has been continuously knitting to raise money for charities.
Having always enjoyed knitting, Vera thought she would put her skills to good use and makes all sorts of wonderful items such as baby hats and blankets, made from wool, which is generously donated by people in the local community.
On 1st February, Vera donated £500 to Julia’s House, which is hospice is set up to support seriously ill children and their families, using funds she had collected over the last five months.
Kerry Edney, who represented Julia’s House and came to collect the funds, commented,
“What a fantastic achievement. Thank you, Vera.”
This isn’t the first time Vera has done anything like this, this will be her third donation to charity, after she previously donated £500 to Wiltshire Air Ambulance and £500 to Alzheimer’s Society doing the same thing.
All charities are personally selected by Vera and her daughter Anne Fernandes, who also regularly helps Vera to knit, each item can take a couple of days to finish but a blanket takes around one week. Colleagues at the home say that Vera spreads the items out in her room everyday so that people can purchase, should they wish.
Vera Benney commented,
“I was getting so many donations of wool that I needed to use it!”
Fellow Residents Bob West and Janet Moore have both commented that it is such a lovely thing to do and admire what Vera does.
Linda Neate, Senior Wellbeing Coordinator, said,
“As Wellbeing Coordinator for Avon Court, I get to spend a lot of time with Vera and see the huge effort she puts into her knitting. I, as everyone here at Avon Court, am very proud of her.”
Deputy Manager at Avon Court, Deborah Curtis, remarked,
“Vera has worked very hard to raise money for charity and we are all proud of her.”
Julia’s House have invited Residents and Colleagues from Avon Court to their Open Day on 15th March which everyone is very much looking forward to attend.