Shannon’s Bridge is a registered charity and largely volunteer run organisation to help connect patients and existing palliative care services and support.
They create emergency symptom control packs (called Shannon’s Packs) that GP’s (general practioners) can use to ‘bridge’ the gap between the patient’s needs and what is available for that patient in their preferred place of care.
These Shannon’s Packs are a “just in case” or emergency pack that is aimed to reduce visits to Emergency Departments especially on weekends or in areas without 24 hour nursing or medical support.
They have also opened an End of Life Care Hub in my local town, Creswick, that is a place for people to get help with all things about illness and dying and grief.
I have been impressed with all their staff in the compassionate and helpful ways they talk about death and dying and managing grief. I believe that talking about things is always better than not, so am supporting their efforts in a practical way that I know how… with sewing!
How Can You Help?
Our postal address is PO Box 195, Creswick, VIC, 3363
If you are able to make any of the items below, please pop in your contact details (facebook / Instagram / postal address) so we may thank you for your contribution!
1. Sewing Zippy Pouches
They are just starting to provide Carer’s Packs, which will have some lovely things in them as a little pick-me-up for a carer of a long term or terminally ill family member. And they are in need of a sweet zippy pouch in which to put these things for their carer’s packs!
We have determined that the large size of the Noodlehead tutorial for her Open Wide Pouch is the best size to fit in the things they want to include. Click on the link below for details of the sizing we need and links to the tutorial 🙂
2. Sewing Unlined Bags
The other item they provide local hospitals and hospices are Hand Over bags…. these are the bags that contain the personal belongings of a loved one who has passed away. Currently most hospitals use a blue garbage bag for this, however Shannon’s Bridge believe that handing over these belongings in a bag that has been made with some love and care is a much more fitting way to handle this moment.
The bag we are sewing up for this is the Unlined Bag Tutorial I created recently. Below is the link and details for these bags (they take just 2 Fat Quarters of fabric plus a little bit of contrasting fabric and less than an hour of your time).
3. Donate Fabric
We hope you can help out with some sewing, but if you haven’t got time to sew, you can make a donation of fabric for others to sew.
The fabrics on the link below can be purchased and will be sewn up on the Charity Sew Day. They are 25% off with the use of the coupon code ‘charitysewing’.
Please note, these fabrics will NOT be sent to you, they will be used by our wonderful sewists on the Charity Sew Day. Make sure you select the free shipping or local pick up option so as to not be charged shipping.
And if you have some fabric in your stash that you would like to donate, we will happily accept that as well! Minimum is a half yard / half metre of fabric as this will make one zippy pouch or one unlined bag 🙂
And if you have any 14″ or 16″ zips that you would like to donate, we will happily accept those as well!
Just CONTACT ME for the address details.
4. Donate to Shannon’s Bridge Charity
If you would just prefer to donate some money to Shannon’s Bridge for one of their Shannon’s Packs or to assist their ongoing work, you can donate via their website.
5. Come to our Charity Sew Day
We have a limited number of spaces available for people to come to our Charity Sew Day at the Said With Love Quilt Barn on Saturday 21st September. We need people to sew, cut fabric, iron fabric and keep us fed and watered!
If you want to attend, please RSVP to the Sew Day event below.