Blood Cancer UK
Children’s Book Fundraiser
In January 2020, a man named Jon Fairless contacted me to ask if I might be able to help with bringing his children’s story to life.
Jon’s wife Louise had, like me, recovered from blood cancer a few years earlier. He had written a story that he wanted to turn into an illustrated children’s book, fully funded so that the proceeds of all sales could go directly to Blood Cancer UK (BCUK), to support their life saving work. I agreed to illustrate the book ‘Twas The Morning of Christmas’ (TTMC) entirely for free, so this dream could become a reality, and we could maximise the income for the incredible BCUK.
Bringing the story to life…
Jon had written a magical Christmas story, following the excitement of children on Christmas Day, and the efforts of Santa, his reindeer, and elves, to make sure that all children have the gifts that they deserve on the big day.
The story itself provided so many cheerful, charming characters as a basis to work with, so it was a pleasure to develop an illustrated world around the childrens’ homes, the elves’ workshop, the reindeers’ stables, and Santa’s home with Mrs Clause.
The final book
While I worked on creating the visuals for the story, Jon and his wife Louise worked hard to raise the funds to print the final book – they held raffles, organised charity bake sales, and set up a Go Fund Me page that my family and I shared and supported too. In 2021 we hit our financial target and we were able to arrange for 920 books to be printed.
As I had previously supported BCUK, fundraising through my artwork and designing products for their online shop, I was able to liaise with my contacts at the charity to prepare marketing and promotional materials to drive sales of the book.
I’m delighted to say that the book officially went on sale in November 2021 and is available to buy directly from BCUK’s online webshop. Snap up your copy of this limited edition book to bring a smile to kids’ faces and support this amazing charity!
“Graeme has supported Blood Cancer UK for a number of years now, following his own diagnosis and subsequent recovery from Leukaemia. His creativity and generosity have made a real impact to our fundraising efforts. He and Jon have created a wonderful book, full of Christmas spirit and it’s available to buy now. We are so grateful for their contribution to our work.”
— Gemma Peters, Former CEO, Blood Cancer UK
Twas the Morning of Christmas
— A book created for Blood Cancer UK