Lancaster cancer charity therapist's arty way to help people during lockdown
Rachel Walker is one of the charity’s specialist counsellors and, after noticing that some of her clients were struggling to maintain face-to-face social contact during lockdown, she hit upon an idea to help them be creative and stay in touch with people in the process.
She has come up with a scheme which involves making up special packs of art materials and distributing them to the homes of around 100 of CancerCare’s clients and inviting them to create an image or piece of writing that encapsulates a mood or a moment during their experience of lockdown.
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Hide AdThe individual pieces will then be collected and combined to create a larger, unique piece of artwork.
Rachel said: “I was aware that some of my clients, especially ones living alone, weren’t seeing many people and I thought this would be a great way for them to get a visitor when we drop the materials off and pick up the artwork.
"They will be able to have a bit of face-to-face interaction which many of them have been missing. I just want then to feel that they are being thought about by us.
“Older people often aren’t able to use digital ways of keeping in touch so something as simple as a quick chat on the doorstep can be extremely important to them.”
At the end of the project, the participants will receive a card featuring the image of the artwork they helped to create and the finished piece will go on display across all three CancerCare centres.