Widow sells £20k of sunflowers in husband's memory

Helen Creed said she was blown away by the money raised, having secured £10,000 in donations in 2023

A widow has raised £20,000 for charity by selling sunflowers in her late husband's memory.

Helen Creed, 44, grew the flowers at the farm in Corringham, Essex, where she is a partner, and asked for a donation to St Luke's Hospice in return.

It followed her husband, Alex, dying in April 2020 having been diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour three years earlier.

"Never in a million years did we think we'd get to anywhere near this money," she told BBC Essex.

Ms Creed, from Stanford-le-Hope, said their son Isaac had helped with the annual effort at the JM Frood & Son farm.

Helen Creed hopes their son, Isaac, grows to have the same "enthusiasm for life" as his father

"It is absolutely amazing, but the best thing we see is the number of people outside in the sunshine," she said.

Mr Creed had several rounds of chemotherapy following his diagnosis in 2017.

He died after being admitted to hospital shortly after the first national lockdown in 2020.

"We had to keep going," Ms Creed said. "We had to keep getting up, we had to keep carrying on, we had to keep a smile on our faces.

"Alex was amazing until the point at which he couldn't speak anymore. He would [still] carry on and get up."

Ms Creed said her husband continued to work for a year after his first round of chemotherapy.

"I’m trying to be a parent who brings my son up to have the same kind of enthusiasm for life that his father had," she said.