Farnham family overwhelmed by response to Channel 4 Restoration Man
17 January, 2012
Following Channel 4’s programme “Restoration Man” that was shown on 5 January thousands of pounds of donations came flooding into Nikki’s Trust and Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice. Nikki Fagg, former patient of the Hospice and originally from Farnham was featured in the popular TV documentary with her husband Pete. The programme followed their journey as they restored an old family mill into their dream home. Sadly midway through the filming of the programme Nikki received devastating news that she had terminal cancer and tragically passed away before seeing the end result, but her legacy lives on.
Nikki’s sister Shelly Carolan, who is running the London marathon in aid of Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice along with her husband Marcus and best friend Dan White in honour of her sister says, “We have been blown away by the heartfelt comments and donations and today our marathon page sits in excess of £8,000! The support from complete strangers has just been incredible and it’s left all of us a little speechless. I am immensely proud of my sister and the strength of character she showed throughout. This was not only a credit to who she was but a testament to both my parents and the incredible care and support they gave her and all our family.”
The response on Twitter saw the programme trending worldwide, it even included celebrities such as Lorraine Kelly who re-tweeted the link to Nikki’s Trust to her 187,000 followers on Twitter, Restoration Man’s presenter George Clarke and also Brendan Cole from Strictly who also retweeted. Before the show Nikki’s Trust had donations of £1,000 after the show this has increased to just over £8,000 – the influx of donations took up the websites one months’ worth of bandwidth in the first 15 minutes.
Whilst Nikki’s Trust is being established Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice has provided a channel to collect all donations. Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice will be the first to benefit from the trust that will provide specific pain control equipment and staff training which will make such a difference to the lives of those in Nikki’s situation. The donations will be split, with the remaining funds being used to explore the vaccination goals and take the pain control goal further afield once the Trust is independent.
To find out more about Nikki’s Trust, please visit www.nikkistrust.co.uk or to support Shelly, Marcus and Dan in their quest to complete the London Marathon, please visit www.justgiving.com/NikkiFagg. If you missed the prorgamme please visit www.channel4.com/programmes/restoration-man.
For more information on hospice news please visit: http://phyllistuckwellhospice.org/media-information.
