We meet a lady in Kingswinford who tragically lost her daughter at a young age, just as she was becoming a woman. It was down to a blood cancer condition and the mother now uses her time raising money for charities in that field of work. She's set up Beths Sunflowers, and will have the Beths Flowers garden on display at the upcoming Gardeners World Show in Birmingham. She's also been selected for an event recognising the top 50 volunteers in the area.
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00:00 Hello Andrea, how you doing? Hello, hi, I'm Andrea Childs, I'm from Kingsreeford in the West Midlands and I'm Beth's mum, this is Beth.
00:12 And Beth was our beautiful daughter. We lost Beth in 2018 to a cancer, a blood cancer called Leukaemia.
00:19 She fought it for nearly two years and lost her battle with Leukaemia and died just before she was 21, which was devastating.
00:28 And we wanted to do something to remember her, we wanted to do something to ensure that her name and her memory lived on and she had a legacy.
00:37 So we established Beth's Sunflowers. Beth's Sunflowers is a charity supporting blood cancer charities, predominantly cure Leukaemia and a charity called A Gift to Lift.
00:47 So we raise money, we raise money from selling sunflower seeds, we raise money from making wedding favours, which are little bags with sunflower seeds in them, or envelopes.
00:56 And we sell pebbles, hand-painted pebbles with sunflowers and we actually sell sunflower plants as well.
01:02 So anything we can to raise money for blood cancer charities. And this year we've been asked to return to Gardeners World Live, the BBC Gardeners World Live show at the NEC,
01:12 which is June the 13th to the 16th, and we'll be having a garden which will hopefully look something like this when it's actually built.
01:21 We're still praying for some sunshine for the next 10 days to bring some of those flowers on.
01:28 But the garden is a garden of treasured memories and it obviously will feature Beth's Sunflowers.
01:35 And it's a journey and the idea for the garden was thought up by her best friends, which is beautiful.
01:41 And a lot of those friends will be at the garden show as well to talk to people about the garden and talk to people about Beth as well.
01:47 And all the flowers symbolise, all the pink flowers, predominantly pink, because Beth loved pink.
01:52 That was her colour wasn't it, that was her thing, the pink flowers.
01:55 Yeah, and the flowers predominantly symbolise strength, beauty, ambition, kindness, and all the things that Beth was.
02:04 And it's been a really hard journey to have to go through, losing a child.
02:10 We wanted to do something positive out of it and we believe that Beth's Sunflowers is that positive thing.
02:15 And we just really, really want to continue it and I hope it's very, very successful in the future.
02:20 Yeah, it's a lovely design there you've got on the garden.
02:23 You've got the little, what are the flowers at the front, the little yellow ones?
02:26 We've got some Buttercups and Daisies which symbolise her happy childhood.
02:30 And then it finishes at the end with her legacy, which is her Sunflowers.
02:33 So we've got yellow at the beginning and yellow at the end.
02:36 And then we've got a Flamingo Willow, we've got all sorts of different peonies.
02:40 The stepping stones travelling through.
02:42 We've got stepping stones which signify the stepping stones and journey of her life through the garden.
02:47 And lots of beautiful grasses as well which are very calming.
02:51 So that will be on show at Gardeners World.
02:54 So it's an outdoor garden in the area by Picnic Hill.
02:57 So please, if you can, come and see us. Come and say hello, buy some Sunflowers.
03:02 And we'd love to see you and talk to you about Beth.
03:05 And you've got the Holly Busher on board and helping you with this one, aren't you?
03:08 We've got some fantastic partners. Holly Bush Garden Centre up on the Cannock Road.
03:13 They are amazing. They have grown the majority of the plants in their hothouses.
03:18 They're building the garden for us, planting it.
03:21 They've been absolutely amazing.
03:23 So Jack Moody Landscaping and Holly Bush.
03:26 Yeah, absolutely brilliant partners to be on board.
03:29 And yeah, and this week. So that's happening in nearly two weeks' time.
03:33 And then this week I've just found out I've been nominated for a...
03:37 in the top 50 volunteers and charity workers in the West Midlands.
03:41 Well deserved, I'm sure. So it's the Queen's representative, isn't it, that you'll be meeting?
03:47 Yes, Sir John Crabtree is the Lord Lieutenant of the West Midlands
03:50 and he represents the King in the West Midlands.
03:53 And he is having a big fancy ceremony at the Great Hall in the University of Birmingham on the 23rd of June.
04:02 And we're all invited, all the top 50 are invited to that with their partners.
04:06 And one lucky person will be picked and that lucky person will have a tram on the Metro named after them.
04:15 So I think I'd probably ask if it was me for it to be called Beth's Sunflower.
04:20 You know what, yeah, I wondered that because I guess you kind of view it as a recognition for the both of you, doesn't it?
04:26 It's all about Beth and it's all about cure leukemia.
04:29 Yeah, so it would be great if we could have... she's already actually got a large juggernaut lorry named after her by JJX Logistics.
04:36 They've named one of their new wagons Our Beth with the sunflowers on it and cure leukemia.
04:42 So she's going into transport, so who knows, it will be tram next.
04:46 Yeah, so yeah, they're a great little idea for wedding favours, those.
04:50 Yeah, these are lovely. So we obviously do a personalised label with the bride and groom or the bride and bride
04:55 or the groom and groom's name on them with the date of their wedding and the venue and we tie that on
05:00 and then there's ten little seeds in there which people can have as a little wedding favour.
05:03 So they're really, really popular and we've got hundreds of those to do this summer for weddings, which is great.
05:09 So yeah, we do all sorts of things. We've got a website which is bethsunflowers.co.uk
05:15 so you can see what we do on there and keep up to date with news.
05:18 And we work with loads of primary schools in the local area to help them grow sunflowers with the children
05:23 and loads of the local primary schools have painted pictures of this garden for us.
05:29 So in the little marquee that we've got next door to our outdoor garden, we'll have all the children's pictures as well
05:34 from the local primary schools. And Beth was training to be a primary school teacher, so that would make her really happy.
05:40 She'd love that. She sounded like she was a lovely girl and going places as well.
05:43 She was beautiful, she was intelligent, she was caring and the best friend to so many people.
05:51 And so many people loved her and everywhere she went she touched people.
05:55 So yeah, she's very, very well remembered and very, very, very missed.
05:59 You were saying there was a very tight group of eight or nine of the friends, wasn't there?
06:03 Yeah, eight or nine of her best friends and we're all still very good friends with those girls now, which is lovely.
06:09 And her boyfriend Alex, who's now in Australia, but we're still very, very close to him.
06:14 So we are all very, very close still and we'll all get together to remember Beth often.
06:20 So the charity, get yourself online, look up Beth's Sunflowers, get yourself involved.
06:27 And obviously what you've been through in your life is every parent's worst nightmare.
06:34 Has it taught you something about appreciating life? Is there an overriding kind of thing that's come out of it, a message you can give?
06:45 Is it about not taking stuff for granted?
06:49 Absolutely, appreciate every moment you've got, enjoy it.
06:53 If there's a piece of cake there, eat it. Just enjoy your life.
06:57 If you can go away anywhere, whether it's for an afternoon, a day, do it.
07:02 Enjoy life and have fun with your children and have fun with your family and hold them dear.
07:09 Well, we wish you all the best with Mr. Crabtree next week.
07:12 And more importantly, this garden, let's hope, like you say, the sun comes out and we can get them flowers blooming.
07:18 We get lots of people coming to see us at the BBC Gardener's World show in June at the NEC.
07:22 So yeah, if you can get there, the Good Food show's on at the same time, so you can get some free food and drink as well.
07:29 So it's all good.
07:30 Thanks ever so much, Amja.
07:31 Thank you. Thanks a lot.