Hazel is patching in £1,000 for Josie

Mar 8 2007 By Chloe Griffiths, The Journal

Grandmother Hazel Bent is raising money for the Josie Grove Leukaemia Fund. Hazel, 64, of North Seaton, was deeply moved by Josie's story.

The mother of four, who has seven grandchildren, has been making patchwork quilts for 15 years and about nine years ago she decided to use her work to help others.

Since then, she has raised more than £5,000 to help people ranging from Romanian orphans to victims of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

Mrs Bent, who lives with her husband Gawin, 71, a choirmaster at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Newbiggin, also holds an annual fundraising day at her home where she sells everything from knitted Christmas card tags to king-size quilts in aid of Guide Dogs for the Blind and the baby unit at Wansbeck District Hospital.

And now she has set her sights on raising £1,000 for the Josie Grove Leukaemia Fund.

She intends to make at least 50 quilts to sell on behalf of The Journal fund which, just this week, topped £20,000.

The Fat Quarter patchwork shop in Blackhall Mill has promised to stock Mrs Bent's quilts, as has her local hairdresser, and her husband is also spreading the word at the church.

Notices have gone in the church magazine and many shops in the area and orders have already been flooding in. Mrs Bent said: "I'm determined to raise at least £1,000 for the fund - hopefully more.

"I'm not putting a timescale on it, but I will get there."

It takes about a day for the former bank worker to make each quilt, but she says that after reading about Josie in The Journal, she is determined to raise the funds.

She said: "I kept reading about Josie and seeing her on the television and I just couldn't get her out of my mind.

"I wanted to do something.

"It really makes you think - but for the grace of god it could be any of my grandchildren, and she has just been such a fantastic young woman and so incredibly brave.

"Her parents must be feeling so much emotion, but also so much pride."

Josie, of Princes Street in Corbridge, Northumberland, died last week at home surrounded by her family, after a two-year battle with cancer.

After discovering her condition was terminal, the 16-year-old took the heartrending decision to forgo any further treatment so she could enjoy every moment at home with her family.

Her bravery touched the nation and has inspired hundreds of you to raise or donate money in her memory.