The Stitch Sharer: my knitted MoonWalk London

Guest blogger Bella, from The Stitch Sharer, tells the inspiring story of the knitters who came together to help her raise money for breast cancer research.

This year I was overwhelmed by the generosity of the “Stitch-Sharing” community surrounding my blog. In response to a blog post announcing my participation in the MoonWalk London, which raises money for breast cancer, complete strangers made and donated crocheted, knitted and fabric flowers to celebrate the courage of those facing breast cancer.

The textile flowers were used to decorate the bras of our MoonWalk team and were proudly paraded across streets of London on our 26.2 mile fundraising challenge.

Our team decided to enter this year as several of our work colleagues have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and we wanted to do something positive in recognition of their bravery. Here’s a picture of us on the night. Can you see our bras covered in the fabulous flowers? There are over 350 flowers stitched into place – they did a great job at keeping us warm through the night’s wind and rain!

It was just after midnight that we were able to take our first MoonWalk steps. Into the night we went along with our fellow 17,000 MoonWalkers. Can you imagine the sight? A pink-clad “army” united in a night of marathon activity!

Although the first three miles took us over an hour and a half to complete due to bridge bottlenecks, it did provide a great photo opportunity to capture the sea of MoonWalker hats!

The route took us around some of London’s’ most iconic sites: Buckingham Palace, The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, The London Eye and The Albert Hall to name but a few.

It was fantastic to see the buildings all lit up and then the sky lighten as dawn broke. The volunteers who lined the route were fantastic – as well as seeing us safely across main roads, their words of encouragement and applause gave us all a much needed lift.

Nine hours later we reached the 26 mile marker and shortly after, the finish line!

To date, our team has raised nearly £1,500 for Walk the Walk, the MoonWalk charity that funds projects for the fight against breast cancer, and it doesn’t just include those on the walk – our team involved the wonderful staff in the public library who kindly acted as a collection point for the beautiful flowers, as well as the crafters who not only took time to read the post, but actually picked up their needles and hooks to create their flowers to send.
Even the Cloudhopper, the local art gallery, was so inspired by the crafty community’s response that it went on to display our bras as “Wearable Art”! It was amazing to see them alongside professional sculptures and paintings. Several viewers even asked if our bras were for sale!

And now here I am writing a guest post for Let’s Knit – what a great opportunity to say a massive thank you to everyone who supported us on our MoonWalk London venture!