Charity of the month: Little Hearts Matter

Around 600 babies a year are born with only half a working heart, most of whom require immediate open heart surgery.

Little Hearts Matter is a national charity which supports the families of these children by providing information about the diagnosis, funding research, and offering bereavement services if necessary. It also has a dedicated youth team which supports the first generation of young people to have grown up with half a heart.

This November, why not get involved with the charity’s new fundraising campaign called Handmade Hearts? Surgeons have to make their own “handmade hearts” in the first few weeks of a baby’s life, so LHM is encouraging people to make, bake and sell their own! Your crafty hearts could go a long way towards making that vital surgery easier and safer for the families involved.

Get started by downloading our free knitted heart pattern by Lucinda Ganderton. Look out for a local craft fair, or ask whether you can start selling the hearts through your local yarn shop.

Go to www.lhm.org.uk to find out more information about the charity, and get your fundraising pack.