Artist raises over £5,000 in support of Sheffield Children’s Hospital

SHEFFIELD artist Pete McKee has raised over £5,000 for The Children’s Hospital Charity’s arts programme, Art+, with a specially designed Christmas card.

Art+ works to improve the surroundings and environment across Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust sites, including Sheffield Children’s Hospital, for the benefit of patients, families, and NHS staff. The team commissions creative practitioners including landscape architects, multimedia artists and designers to transform the patient experience. They also provide participation opportunities for patients across the Trust, helping to engage and distract them during their time of care at Sheffield Children’s.

Pete McKee has been a patron of the arts programme at The Children’s Hospital Charity for many years. In 2021, his design during the Bears of Sheffield, “Thank you Sheffield Children’s Hospital” raised £30,000 for the Charity.

Pete continued his support with last year’s Christmas card design, ‘Merry Itchmas’. Every Christmas Pete designs a festive card, with all profits going to Art+. The cards are a special part of the festive season, and this year they flew off shelves.

Pete said:

“I am so chuffed with the amount we raised this year for Art+ at the Sheffield Children’s. It is great to know that this money will go to support their amazing projects.

“Thank you to everyone who bought the cards and to ASAP Digital who even had to print more because they were so popular. I had better get thinking about next year’s design now so we can raise even more for the Charity.”

This year the cards were produced in collaboration with local printers ASAP Digital. The printers generously printed the cards free of charge, helping to raise even more for the Charity.

ASAP Digital Company Director, David Allsopp, said:

“ASAP was thrilled to support Artplus by supplying and donating the print and envelopes for the Christmas card project this year. It’s great to know that our contribution will make a difference to such an important and valued local institution.”

The project was supported by volunteers from Amazon Doncaster, Sheffield Aviva, and Ovo Spaces, who arranged the cards into packs for sale.

Head of Art+, Jade Richardson, said:

“Art+ could not deliver the creative work we do without the valued support of kind people like Pete, David and their teams. We are also so grateful to all the volunteers who made this project possible. A huge thank you to everyone who’s helped raise this money.”

To support Art+ and find out more about their projects, please visit the website: https://www.tchc.org.uk/about-us/art-plus/.