NHS Bluebirds

A Harrogate artist and art tutor is raising money for ambulance staff with her ‘bluebirds for the NHS’ initiative.

Sarah Charneca was inspired to paint bluebirds after seeing the rainbows painted by local children in their windows. She began painting the birds for her twin Emma, a clinical lead nurse at Harrogate district hospital.

“I made bluebirds for my twin sister Emma and another for my niece, Laura Edgar, who is doing her medical training in Birmingham. They started to post the images of the birds on social media and everything snowballed from there.”

Sarah asked other family and friends to nominate people they’d like to celebrate in the NHS and made blue birds with their name on, posted to Facebook, then tagged the person who nominated them.

Sticking the birds in her front window also inspired people walking past to nominate their own NHS friends and family. She said: “The reactions of the NHS workers on Facebook has been so lovely and I think they feel cherished.”

Sarah, who normally runs ‘Art for Fun’ classes to residential care and dementia nursing homes, soon realised there was the opportunity to fundraise for those she felt were the ‘unsung’ heroes of the coronavirus crisis – ambulance staff.

Sarah said: “We don’t hear much on the news about our amazing ambulance service, who must be facing some terrible situations and exposure to the Covid 19 virus.”

Sarah has raised over £2000 so far for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Service NHS Trust Charities.

Search for #NHSbluebirds on social media to donate and nominate a care worker.

For media enquiries contact clair@causeuk.com 0753 194 8014.