Charity Fundraiser for Sustainability Champion
In May Carole Patilla, co-founder of Farewell Flowers and owner of Tuckshop Flowers was celebrating a Gold Medal win at the RHS Chelsea Flower show. Sadly, Pancreatic Cancer decided to cut short her life in September at just 59. Now there is a unique way to not only support research into this devastating disease but win part of that Gold winning display.
Although it wasn’t her first career, flowers, floristry and growing were her first love. And, having reached the finals of the BBC Gardeners World Gardener of the Year, Carole decided to quit her job as a teacher and focus full time on growing and creating wedding and funeral designs, with an emphasis on sustainable design and flower use. She then expanding into teaching with sustainable focussed workshops and in 2020 became co-chair of the Flowers From The Farm (FFTF), the membership association established to support the UK flower farming business.
With friend and partner Gill Hodgson MBE, in May 2024 she founded, Farewell Flowers which highlights plastic-foam-free funeral flowers and to connect funeral directors and the public with (local) florists offering sustainable, compostable arrangements. The pinnacle of her career was the creation of the first ever funeral display at the prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower show where she, Gill, and fellow designers Georgie Newberry and Nicola Hill won a well-deserved Gold Medal.
Tributes have flowed in to show respect, admiration and love for a woman who was determined to show that alternatives to foam based designs were available and that where possible locally grown should be the first option. Now her partner and friend Gill Hodgson has decided to use the incredible life-size man and dog metal statues which featured in the Chelsea display to raise funds for the Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Run as a draw through the Crowdfunder platform, tickets cost just £10, all monies raised will go to the charity and Gill will deliver Man and Dog anywhere in mainland Britain. To enter click here.
The Man and Dog metal sculpture which will be won by someone donating to the special charity fundraiser and delivered anywhere in mainland Britain for free.
