At the recent Compassionate Community Awards held on the 10th April, our very own Susi Long (right) received a Compassionate Community Champion award for her Colchester Blanketeer’s hard work and dedication by the Mayor of Colchester Lesley Scott-Boutell (centre), supported by fellow Blanketeer, Sandy Thornton (left).
Susi explained – I set up Colchester Blanketeers in 2017 when I lost my Mum with a Matron that looked after her in Hospital and we are now in 2024, our 7th successful year and are going from strength to strength. We were very lucky to have a BBC documentary about us a couple of years ago which was great. We run solely on the kindness of people donating wool to us there is no money involved at all, I am very passionate about it as it is my Mums legacy. Yes, it takes up a lot of my spare time but so rewarding and confidence building. I run this on my own now as the Matron has moved on, but I get great support from the Hospital including from the CEO.
We started off with about 10 members now I have about 60 which is amazing, we even survived Covid by having silly messages on Facebook making sure everyone was okay and then once allowed, had meetings on the Recreation Ground.