Art Workshops at Sunnyside Court

Outreach Manager for Art in Healthcare, Amelia Calvert, discusses a recent success of the outreach programme in a sheltered housing complex. 

 July and August saw the start of Art in Healthcare’s 2013/14 outreach programme, building on what went before with ‘Art from Art’ (see blog entry, http://www.artinhealthcare-scotland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/art-in-healthcare-reaches-oout.html). This involved a five-week long series of art workshops at the sheltered housing complex, Sunnyside Court, part of Hanover Housing Association, in Morningside, culminating in an exhibition in the complex of all the artworks that had been created during the programme.

Some of the residents and artist, Emily Learmont (third from right) at the final exhibition

While the exhibition itself was clearly a hub of merriment, excitement and proud artists showing their works, it was the workshops themselves with the quiet, contented and diligent concentration of every participant that was the most memorable about this programme.

The workshops were facilitated by artist, Emily Learmont, who had run art workshops for AiH in the past, along with the help of a couple of AiH volunteers. Emily commented at the end that it was “a memorable experience” and that everyone was “hugging me goodbye!” Clearly she had had a great effect on the group with her gentle teaching manner and skill at art.

The programme came about after Edinburgh Decorative Fine Arts Society generously donated £5,000 to AiH earlier in 2013, part of which AiH decided to spend specifically on an art workshop programme in a sheltered housing complex around Edinburgh – a new venture having previously focused on workshops in Hospitals, Care Homes and care-related charities. We heard about Sunnyside Court where at least 9 residents were very interested in doing art workshop and the sheltered housing manager, Mary Riseborough, helped to develop the link and start the programme.

Mary herself took part in one of the workshops and was heard to comment, “I could just feel the happy atmosphere…[I was] totally engrossed”. At the end of the programme, she added, “The way in which they have encouraged one another has been inspirational…[and] the community spirit has been great”.

Indeed, participants seemed to highly value the experience and when asked about what they enjoyed, comments collected via feedback forms reported: “Everything…having fun”; “chance to express myself in art form”; “I didn’t think I could do it!”; “the company – really good. Keeps me going”; “doing things I’ve never done before…working with other people…very pleased with what I did”; “togetherness”; “I found it all encouraging and exciting, very stimulating and I learned a great deal about art creation”.

When asked about what went well, comments from participants included: “The group support and friendships which encouraged both the painting and creating of work and the desire not to finish the experience”; “Everyone felt they achieved something they would not have believed when they started”.

Clearly the art workshops were about more than just creativity for the participants but about the coming together with others to create, and the opportunity for them to try something new with the support of people around them.

What happens next, now that the AiH workshop series and exhibition are past? From early on in the series, the group clearly wanted to make art workshops a regular feature in the lounge of Sunnyside Court and not just as an informal get-together amongst themselves but with the added value of a visiting artist to impart knowledge, teach them new skills and further engage them in the world of visual arts. So the group are planning to apply for funding themselves, which would enable them to effectively buy a series of workshops for a longer period of time at Sunnyside Court.

Meanwhile, AiH intends to do more workshops in sheltered housing in due course, dependent on our funding, so watch this space…

Artist Uncovered: Emily Learmont (nee Bakker)

Martine F Pugh meets the artist and supporter of Art in Healthcare.

Emily Learmont pours tea into delicate blue and white china and shows me through to her studio-cum-sitting room. She explains in a soft and clear voice that she comes from an artistic family and that she always loved drawing as a child, not on scraps of paper but on the blank side of redundant architectural drawings her father brought home from work. 

After school, she chose to study at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) which in the late 1980's was buzzing with excitement.

Glasgow Street Scene  oil, 185 x 154cm

AiH collection

The GSA figurative tradition suited her interest in people. Her paintings of that period in the Art in Healthcare (AiH) collection are expressive street scenes that show her keen sense of observation rendered with the flat perspective characteristic of Chinese, Japanese or Persian arts that still fascinate her today.

The Rainy Day   oil,  124 x 154cm

AiH collection

Her inclination towards the fine arts was honed further still when Emily secured a postgraduate place at the Royal Academy (RA) School in London. She thoroughly enjoyed her time in the small department tucked away behind the grand RA buildings, sneaking out regularly to the galleries for her breaks still wearing her painting clothes, to feast her eyes on “beautiful things”. 

When she returned to Edinburgh in 2000, she was commissioned by AiH to work with children in hospitals to find out what they would like to see on the walls around them. Holidays and sunny beaches were at the top of their wish list prompting her to produce a series of joyful paintings. 

Beachcomber’s Mermaid   oil, 65 x 79cm

AiH collection

The Art in Healthcare collection has no less than thirteen of her paintings of which four are wonderful swimming pool scenes that convey a feeling of weightlessness and escapism. This series coincided with a period of ill-health which led her to spend much time relaxing and exercising in the pool. 

Drumsheugh Swimming Pool   oil,  184 x 152cm

AiH collection

This experience heightened Emily’s understanding of the need of healthcare patients and her appreciation of the work AiH do. 

“I really like the fact that my paintings are in AiH. I think art is such a good thing to have in a healthcare setting and doing art as well is a brilliant thing to do. I am pleased to have made that connection, that my work is going to be in hospital and hopefully that it’s going to cheer somebody up, that’s really important to me.”

When she found large oil canvasses too strenuous physically, she switched to watercolours and produced a series of illustrative paintings of angels and archangels for the Edinburgh-based Scottish Storytelling Centre Christmas 2009 exhibition. She found this new direction therapeutic.

Archangel   watercolour,  70 x 50 cm

image courtesy of the artist

When she recovered her full health, she started painting with oils again but her technique had changed, smooth layers and glazes had replaced the thick impasto. This radical shift is perfectly suited to her new subject matter, angels, dragons, the creatures and landscapes of her imagination that she conjures up in great details with linear and precise brush strokes. 

Emily Learmont’s painterly practice today is in harmony with her other pursuits. It absorbs her research for gallery talks on Scottish and Renaissance masters, George Jameson, John Duncan and Botticelli being particular favourites, and her current involvement with patients in healthcare settings. 

Her style may have changed since her earlier paintings, but her rationale is still about transcendence of the mundane which she now conveys with fantastic realism.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh

With thanks to Emily Learmont.

Links

The Glasgow School of Art http://www.gsa.ac.uk/

The Royal Academy Schools http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/raschools/

Scottish Storytelling Centre http://www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk/

Why charities need patrons

As Art in Healthcare appoints a new patron, Martine Foltier Pugh considers the relationship between charities and patrons.

In July last year, AiH trustee Gavin McEwan wrote a blog about the role of a charity’s board of trustees, how they safeguard the organisation’s activities, its legal and financial accountability. It would be fair to say that despite their considerable governance and managerial power, the identity of the trustees often remains largely unknown.

It would be equally fair to say that the exact opposite is true of the patron. Recently, prominent painter and Royal Academician Barbara Rae RA CBE RE who featured in the ‘Artist Uncovered’ blog of March this year, accepted Art in Healthcare’s invitation to be their patron. This is a good opportunity to reflect on what the role means.

Mull Ferry  by Barbara Rae  watercolour, 105x88cm

Art in Healthcare collection

Historically, it has long been the privilege and the pleasure of wealthy individuals to fund artists and the art world would be much depleted if for instance, the Medicis or the Steins had not supported and commissioned great works from da Vinci, Michelangelo or Picasso. Patrons were not only influential through their financial support but also in terms of taste. They were the trendsetters of their time. 

The idea of patronage has evolved since and today what charities look for in a patron is an individual who not only commands public attention, but is also passionate about what they stand for and can promote and lend credibility and weight to their cause. The royal family is a good example of such patronage.

I asked Barbara Rae what this appointment meant for her and she replied:

“Besides being an important charity in itself, without one like AiH hospitals would be barren, antiseptic places. It is essential patients and visitors have some visual stimulus that lifts the spirit, takes their mind off their immediate health problem, even momentarily.In ward or waiting room art can make the difference between gloom and hope. A good art image is always superior to a No Smoking sign.”

Ballachulish 1  by Barbara Rae monotype, 87x70cm

Art in Healthcare collection

With this statement, the artist not only captures what is at the heart of the AiH vision, it also reveals her enthusiasm for it, her love of colour and sense of humour.

To be a patron has a definite air of glamour about it. But like any other ‘job’ it depends on a good relationship between the two parties to fulfil their mutual expectations and any appointment will be preceded by an exchange of documents that spell out clearly what is required from each party.  Typically, these documents will outline how to maintain the flow of communication with regular updates from both sides, how many events the patron will be asked to attend per year and how the charity will make use of the patron’s name and picture.

The roles of the board of trustees and of the patron may be poles apart yet the charity’s performance depends on this disparity. The trustees ensure the long-term good practice and sustainability of the organisation and this in turn guarantees the backing of high profile patrons who are mindful about with whom their name is associated. The board of trustees and the patron are as interdependent and complementary as Yin and Yang. 

 Magic Happening no1 by Alan Davie  gouache, 93x81cm

Art in Healthcare collection

This appointment is a momentous occasion in the history of AiH as Barbara Rae is only their second patron. Their other patron, Alan Davie, was appointed by Paintings in Hospitals in the mid 1990s and stayed with AiH after its creation at the start of the new millenium. This new development also indicates a significant period of growth for the organisation as it continues to expand geographically and in its range of services.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh.

With thanks to Barbara Rae.


Royal Academy http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/
Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers http://artmondo.net/printworks/workshops/re.htm
Royal involvement with patronage http://www.royal.gov.uk/charitiesandpatronages/royal%20involvement%20with%20charities/royal%20involvement%20with%20charities.aspx
The House of Medici http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Medici
The Stein family http://www.sfmoma.org/about/press/press_exhibitions/releases/862
Yin and Yang http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/taoism/ataglance/glance.shtml

Artist Uncovered: Leo du Feu

Martine F Pugh catches up with landscape painter, nature lover and bird fancier Leo du Feu


At the height of summer and in this year 2013 of Natural Scotland, it seems highly appropriate to keep our focus on the artists in the Art in Healthcare collection who find inspiration in nature and Leo du Feu is the perfect choice.

A Hint of Red, West Coast Canada   22x29cm, acrylic on card

image courtesy of the artist 

Leo’s name has come up before in this blog in the post ‘Art in Healthcare Reaches Out’ dated 27 November where I reported on the workshops he led for Art in Healthcare in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. To inspire the young participants he had specially chosen the painting of a bird from the AiH collection. This choice was not random as Leo is himself an enthusiastic birdwatcher.

Coastal Defence, Aberdeenshire   50x50cm, acrylic on canvas 
AiH Collection

Leo du Feu who has just turned twenty-nine, is a full-time artist who paints in the great Scottish landscape tradition and like many artists of his generation his talent is many-sided. Full-time really means full-time as his website and blog reveal the diversity of his practice.
As well as a painter with an impressive list of exhibitions and awards to his credit, he is also an educator who gives talks and leads workshops in healthcare settings, for local authorities and art groups, and also for Historic Scotland in his home town of Linlithgow. 

The Old Manse, Orkney   15x21cm

private collection, image courtesy of the artist

The nineteenth century Romantic landscape painters could rely either on private wealth or on generous sponsors to pay for their travelling expenses. But their present-day counterparts have to vie for a limited number of travel scholarships and Leo has deservedly won a number of them that have taken him on journeys around Scotland and across Canada. Leo has already had one book published Sketches from Canada and a second Landscapes and Birds of Scotland, an artist’s view due to come out in October, will be accompanied by a solo exhibition at the RGI Kelly Gallery in Glasgow.  


His paintings, mostly acrylic, range from postcard size to several metres high such as the four paintings commissioned by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, now on permanent display in the foyer of their new Crawford building. 

detail from the series Through the Telescope, acrylic on canvas, 

UK Astronomy Technology Centre,  image courtesy of the artist

His close-up studies of birds are on an intimate scale. They convey his fascination for them as he endeavours to “get a bird right” and his knowledge of their anatomy and behaviour. On the other hand, his landscapes of spectacular hills and skies, intense wooded areas and coastal scenery, allow his lyrical temperament to come through with dramatic light effects and compositions which allude to the land of dreams. 
His blog ‘Landscape, art, nature, birds’ eloquently records the observations he makes during his frequent trips around Scotland, including to the Highlands and islands, filling up his sketchbooks with drawings that he develops later back in his studio into paintings. Increasingly Leo also completes finished watercolours out in the field. His style is representational and this reflects his deep respect for his subject matter.

Common Gull, Larus canus   14.5x21cm, acrylic on card

private collection, image courtesy of the artist

The importance of sketching can never be overstated. Professional artists need to sketch like athletes need to exercise and even if nothing in particular catches his attention while he is out and about looking for material, Leo will nonetheless stop in his track and “force himself to draw and see what happens”.  The accumulation of sketches and notes altogether add up to a very personal database of marks, colours and sensations that he retrieves later in his studio to produce the artwork. Then the creative process really begins.

Isle of May Puffins  blog post, June 2013

image courtesy of the artist

I particularly like the recent blogs he posted during his week-long trip to the Nature Reserve on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth. They are a very entertaining recollection of observations and anecdotes with photographs and sketches that will delight everybody. I can’t decide which of his chance meetings I prefer, the rock pipit aka lbj for ‘little brown job’ or the preening terns he captured in mid contortions! 

There is no doubt about it, Leo’s success is due to both his talent and hard work and through his skilful use of social media he is also able to reach a wide audience for their enjoyment.


Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh


With thanks to Leo du Feu for his information. You can follow him through his website and social media pages:

www.leodufeu.co.uk
landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com
facebook.com/pages/Leo-du-Feu/175954912506839

https://twitter.com/LeoduFeu

Other useful links:

Royal Observatory of Edinburgh http://www.roe.ac.uk/

Isle of May Nature Reserve http://www.nnr-scotland.org.uk/isle-of-may/

Year of Natural Scotland 2013 http://www.visitscotland.com/about/nature-geography/year-of-natural-scotland/

Historic Scotland http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/
National Galleries of Scotland, Landscape Art 
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/themes-in-scottish-art/landscape
The Royal Glasgow Institute Kelly Gallery http://www.royalglasgowinstitute.org/

Artist Uncovered: Ian Hamilton Finlay

Martine F Pugh searches for the man behind the genius

Ian Hamilton Finlay was a philosopher, a poet, an ‘avant-gardener’, a sculptor and a revolutionary in thoughts and temperament. How should I uncover arguably the greatest Scottish artist of the twentieth century?  Then I came across an insightful essay by his son Alec where I learnt that Finlay suffered from agoraphobia all his adult life. His affliction revealed to me the man behind the genius and somehow it all began to make sense.

A, E, I, O, Blue, 1992 with Julie Farthing

silkscreen, 45.8 x 152.0 cm

Finlay dismissed his ‘nervous anxiety’ as “unpleasant, but no more interesting, really, than toothache” but his son’s tribute shows what profound effect his fear of busy urban streets had on his life and work and how it inspired him to create  gardens and organise work settings where he could feel safe in natural but controlled rural environments. 

Little Sparta, Finlay’s best known garden and artwork, is situated in the Pentland Hills, south of Edinburgh. Originally called Stonypath, it was an untamed moorland with only one tree in 1966 when Finlay and his wife Sue moved in. With Sue’s planting and Finlay’s planning, it evolved slowly, money was scarce,  into the series of verdant gardens we can visit today that are filled with neo-classical references to Ancient Greece, Finlay’s spiritual and cultural home, and to the French Revolution whose theorists he greatly admired. 

Citron Bleu, 1994, with Gary Hincks 

silkscreen, 45.3 x 57.7 cm

Art historian Bill Hare defines Little Sparta as “a masterly twentieth-century reworking of the Enlightenment Landscape Garden where Apollonian power of reason seeks to control and order through art the ever-threatening chaos of unruly nature.” 

What is true of the great eighteenth-century landscape tradition is also true of Finlay’s endeavour to control his own emotions by immersing himself in art and in the physicality of gardening.

Column Drum to Drum, 1991, with Gary Hincks 

silkscreen, 23.8 x 57.0 cm

But Apollo carried a bow as well as a lyre and when his Arcadian haven came under bureaucratic attacks in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Finlay channelled his frustration and anger into artistic ‘wars’ through sculptures, poems and prints. Stonypath then was renamed ‘Little Sparta’, an allusion to the Spartan wars of Antiquity against Athens and to Edinburgh’s nickname of ‘Athens of the North’.

His movements may have been restricted but Finlay was nonetheless well informed as he corresponded with writers and poets in Britain and around the world. He also surrounded himself with friends and collaborators who were curators, publishers, printmakers, poets, sculptors and stone carvers. With his garden, they provided him with the supportive environment his creativity needed. His genius was to know how to use their particular vision to fulfil and expand his own.

Seams, 1969 

silkscreen, 43.5 x 56.3 cm

Finlay's pioneering written work took many forms that defied syntax and convention: concrete poetry or poem objects  that you can touch, one line poems, poem drawings, sound poems, embroidered texts, texts shaped in neon, small press publications such as POTH (Poor . Old . Tired . Horse) to name a few.

Art in Healthcare is fortunate to have six prints that span four decades. Together they showcase his characteristic wit and visual power and speak for themselves. Two of them may need further explaining. With ‘Citron Blue’ Finlay alluded to the shape of Orkney boats which reminded him of lemons with their protrusions fore and aft and to a poem by Goethe whom Finlay greatly admired. As for ‘Column Drum to Drum’ it refers to the building process of classical columns that involved stacking up drum-shaped sections. 

Sackcloth, 1992, with Pip Hall

silkscreen, 42.0 x 42.3 cm

Ian Hamilton Finlay’s lifelong struggle against agoraphobia had an extraordinary conclusion. He suffered a stroke near the end of his life which reversed his phobia and allowed him to do some travelling once more. 

Since Finlay’s death in 2006, Little Sparta has been looked after by his trust. The future seemed uncertain because of the high maintenance costs but it was announced in June this year that a deal has been signed with Edinburgh University (which now includes Edinburgh College of Art) that will allow scholars to use the house as a study centre. A new beginning unfolds.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh

With thanks to

Bill Hare, art historian and Chair of Art in Healthcare Board of Trustees

The Wild Hawthorn Press for their information on the prints in the AiH collection. http://www.ianhamiltonfinlay.com/wild_hawthorn_press.html

‘Ian Hamilton Finlay – Selections’ edited and with an Introduction by Alec Finlay, University of California Press, 2012.

Little Sparta trust: http://www.littlesparta.org.uk/

The exhibition ‘Ian Hamilton Finlay. Poet. Artist. Revolutionary’ is currently running at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow until March 1 2014.

Amelia's 'Go & See' Outreach Trip Around the Highlands & Islands

'Art in Healthcare Reach Out' on the sands of Morar beach

In the middle of June I set off as Outreach Manager for Art in Healthcare (AiH) to journey around some of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Kindly funded by the ‘Go & See’ fund, which is administered by Engage Scotland and supported by Creative Scotland, I would be away for nearly two weeks as AiH’s Ambassador on the road. My brief? To find out what is going on around some of the more remote areas of Scotland in the field of arts outreach, to learn from these organisations and share with them about AiH, and to investigate any potential new partnerships for future joint project-working.

So where did I go and what did I see 
(alongside the images I snapped here and there..)?

Well, I spent 12 days driving around covering 1,210 miles, including 4 different islands and 6 ferry crossings! I also visited a wide range of services that run different arts outreach programmes from Hospitals and Drop-in/Community Centres to Museums and Galleries, meeting key people involved from Artists and an Art Therapist to Project Coordinators, Arts Officers and a Trustee.

Highland Coos bathing by GlenGorm Castle on Mull

Without exception every person I met was responsive to my mission to learn from them and to hear about AiH and, interestingly, no one had previously heard of AiH nor the range of services we now provide. For me the latter meant my trip was particularly worthwhile. 

I have always valued face-to-face meetings and contact but, for me as Outreach Manager, this was what my role is about, getting out there, meeting people, explaining who we are and what we do at AiH, all with a view to building new relationships, developing new ideas and seeing our role in the bigger picture of arts and health around Scotland, above and beyond the close vicinity of Edinburgh and the 'central belt'. I was certainly rewarded for this and my trip was welcomed by people appreciating that AiH were taking the time to, quite literally, 'go and see' further afield.

 

Beach Pebble Art on a beach by Ness, Lewis

Along the way I learnt a LOT; this included the valuable artist residency programmes at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gallic College on Skye, and about the range of support that Atlas Arts provide to the artists of Skye and Lochalsh. I experienced the community draw of Taigh Chearsabagh as an Arts Centre on North Uist (and the cosy café), likewise the An Lanntair Arts Centre in Stornoway on Lewis with a cinema and exhibition space as well as outreach programmes for the elderly. I heard about the multiple creative opportunities provided at the Catch 23 Drop-in Centre in Stornoway and about the valuable work of a Lewis-based Art Therapist, working in schools with children who have emotional and behavioural issues. 

I experienced the buzz of Ullapool’s art scene at An Talla Solais Arts Centre - connecting people with art and the Rhue Art Gallery - supporting emerging artists, likewise the active McPhail Community Centre that rolls out numerous arts projects to the local community. I went to the Kyle Centre in Tongue and the Strathnaver Museum in Bettyhill, both fulfilling impressive roles in bringing together the local community through various services and art projects. I called in at the Timespan Museum & Art Centre in Helmsdale where I heard about their interesting range of outreach work, closely based on the local heritage and I met with a freelance Arts Officer involved with Groam House Museum in Cromarty who shared her extensive knowledge and experience as an arts officer both locally and further afield. I met with Play Pieces in Inverness, a new theatre group looking to explore theatre projects in healthcare settings and then...I ran out of time. This list is just a selection (and if you are interested in names of just who I met then please get in touch on the email address below)!

 

Loch Choire, Sutherland

Inevitably, I quickly realized as I went around that while I thought I was managing to fit in all the relevant people and organisations to see and meet, these people and organisations were invariably providing me with a helpful other list of essential people and organisations to meet! I reassured myself, however, with the knowledge that I was building up an extensive map in my head, not just a database of names and email addresses but a map of friendly faces and real stories that correlated to arts outreach around the country. Furthermore, I had been struck early on in the planning of my trip that once I started to ‘spread the word’ that I was going, people were contacting me about meeting up, as if once I’d committed to going, I was already starting to draw attention to AiH.

Essentially, the trip did achieve my aims insofar as gaining an insight into arts outreach around the Highlands & Islands of Scotland while raising awareness of AiH and our interest to expand our outreach remit beyond the comfort of Edinburgh. As I went from meeting to meeting, I really found myself closely examining the potential role of AiH in the wider context of Scotland. For example:

• What could we offer to small communities on the remote coasts and Islands of Scotland as an arts organisation based in Edinburgh? 
• What might be our role in the years to come in the national context of arts and health? 
• And how could I, as Outreach Manager at AiH, play a role in setting the appropriate ‘wheels in motion’?

These questions may take a while to properly answer but I’m confident that with the help of those I’ve recently met and of those I’m yet to meet, I’m getting closer to the answer all the time..

Oyster catchers over the Machair, North Uist

A big thank you to those of you that met with me who generously shared your thoughts and ideas, more often than not with a cup of tea and a friendly welcome!

Do get in touch if you have any comments or thoughts about my trip on outreachmanager@artinhealthcare.org.uk or 0131 555 7638.  

You can also follow us on Facebook at Art-in Healthcare and sign up to our quarterly newsletter by emailing David on admin@artinhealthcare.org.uk. Finally, you can look at our website on www.artinhealthcare.org.uk for full details of the range of services we provide to healthcare settings around Scotland.

Ready, Steady, Abseil!

Outreach Manager, Amelia Calvert, writes about her experiences as part of Art in Healthcare's intrepid abseiling team last month...



Ready to go..

 And so, on a deeply foggy day in May, with heartbeats racing, harnesses tightened, helmets fitted and gloves poised, a team of intrepid staff members, trustees, supporters and friends of Art in Healthcare, found themselves lined up along the Forth Rail Bridge, 165ft up from the beach below, a stone’s throw away from the noisy trains thundering overhead and staring rather anxiously at the vertical rope in front of us that disappeared ominously into the distant abyss of crowds cheering below.

Six months of anticipation, JustGiving plugs and wonderings about whether we would actually achieve the task condensed into this one moment, the moment when each of us were asked by our individual helpers, in a relaxed but instructive tone to “now step over the railing”. This was it, no going back, no time to think, just a simple move towards ‘sealing the deal’, as easy as climbing a fence, no? And then to sit back, straighten our legs and enjoy, ha! Oh and smile at the camera before heading down..

Heading down..

The rest is history. Remarkably, we mostly did all smile at the camera and we mostly did all make it to the sand below in both good heart and good health (the latter perhaps less remarkable because the safety of the event seems very watertight). What remains now is to issue multiple thank you’s. Thank you to all our supporters for their generous donations, raising us a total of £7,194.55 plus Gift Aid to date and still increasing.. Thank you to our friends and families for their emotional and mental support – no, the bridge will not fall down and no, there will not be killer seals waiting for you at the bottom. Thank you to CHSS for putting together a fantastic event of which we could be a part (a phenomenal £155,000 was raised on the day for different charities and over £100,000 was raised for CHSS alone) and, most importantly, thank you to the weather fairy for hiding the true scale of the bridge in thick fog before we made our anxious ascent to start the daring descent..

We did it!

Watch our YouTube video of the event, kindly put together by fellow abseiler and volunteer, David Oxley: http://youtu.be/65Wo2mzlCcc