Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

An accident at work in 2002 left me brain injured and unable to do very much for several years.  I had problems with memory, double vision, speech and a  lot more. 
My concentration & stamina were limited, so many activities were beyond my reach.    

About 5 years later I had progressed to a stage where I could try some simple knitting again, a real achivement for me as before that I could not cope with anything to do with numbers or counting at all.   I found  crafting to be really good 'creative therapy'.  I've always been artistic and creative, and so making things helped with my recuperation and also kept me sane! 

I  created a knitted Percy the Park Keeper figure from a story book for a local school, which was a challenge but lots of fun.    In 2012 I asked someone to teach me to crochet, one to one.  With practice I became really good at it and soon began to design my own finger puppets, creating pirates & various animals, moving onto nativity sets of 7 figures - Mary, Joseph, shepherd, 3 different kings, angel plus baby Jesus.

When I saw a Love Russia notice asking for volunteers to go help run a summer camp for orphans, I decided to try to use my craft skills to raise money towards going. 
I sold lots of our hand-made greetings cards, as well as making bright colourful scarves, pirates & nativity finger puppet sets etc.     Eventually with donations and support from my church and circuit, I raised the £750 to go and £350 bonus for the charity too.

During August 2015 I went with a team from Love
Russia to a rural town about 2 hours away from St Petersburg in Russia, where I had a fantastic time teaching my own crafts at the orphanage, to children and adults alike -to anyone who wanted to try them.  We did stitching, mini sticker books using luggage labels, Russian dolls, fun-foam flower pegs, origami, rubber-stamping and more - also lots & lots of loom bands!!  

It was an intense time with a lot of activity crammed in, but also a lot of fun and extremely rewarding.  It wasn't until after I got home that fatigue really hit me!

But doing all this fulfilled me in a way I was not able to be since having to give up work after my accident.    I'd enjoyed teaching my crafts so much that  I thought I would volunteer again this year for running another different summer camp.    I will be able to teach my crafts to  even more children, which is exciting, if a little daunting!  

Brain injury is a hidden disability which has left me with some permanent issues which can even now make life difficult.  I still have double vision and have had to
learn to live with it -  it doesn't stop me doing crafts although I can't drive now.  
I  cannot tolerate loud noise or crowds, nor concentrate on more than one thing at once.   But I CAN craft and pass on my skills. I feel that although I cannot run a marathon or trek to Machu Piccu, in my own way I can still make a difference.

So I decided to raise funds for this trip by creating and
selling my crafts again.  Someone suggested setting up a JustGiving page, which I have just about managed after
several attempts!  (Technology is really difficult for me since my injury).

If you are inspired by my story of overcoming difficulty through creative craft and volunteering, and feel you could donate towards my 2016 adventure, I would really appreciate anything you could  give. 

Watch this space.....