Wrexham: Nightingale House Hospice's hot air balloon 'of memories'

The feet of Val Gillett's family will form just one of the panels of the specially created hot air balloon

Thousands of memories of loved-ones are set to fly high over Wrexham in a bid to keep a hospice afloat.

Photos and messages will be stitched together to create the balloon to celebrate 25 years of Nightingale House Hospice.

Balloon experts said it was like making the "world's largest magic eye".

With fundraising events cancelled because of the pandemic, the hospice has faced the "toughest year" in its history.

So far, children have submitted drawings, while people have sent in tributes and photos of friends, family members and even pets, to be used as part of the giant balloon, which is set to rise up over Wrexham later this year.

Lee Hooper, of Oswestry-based Spirit Operations, said the individual pictures and messages would be printed out and stitched together onto 2.5km (8,000ft) of fabric to make the special balloon.

"It's like a giant game of Tetris," he said.

"A balloon is a big item and we're trying to take small panels to create a bigger picture."

Staff at the hospice, which costs about £3.6m a year to run, are hoping people will sponsor the panels, to help boost their funds.

Sarah Povey said hot air balloon idea was chosen to be very creative and to capture the community's imagination

One, Sarah Povey, said: "It has been a very challenging year for the hospice and it was very important for us to do something very creative and something that would capture the community's imagination."

The feet of Val Gillett's family will be flying high over the town, after she submitted a picture of them in a circle, taken on Talybont beach before lockdown.

Ms Gillett, from Wrexham, said: "It's always been one of my favourite photographs and I did think of writing something on it, but it just epitomises us all together on the beach".

School children have sent in drawings to be included on the balloon

Roger Cotter, whose wife was a day patient at the hospice when she was recovering from cancer, wanted to remember a lost World War Two bomber crew with links to his family.

Mr Cotter, from Llay, sent in a photo of the crew in front of the Lancaster, which failed to land in 1944.

He said: "It's going to take off, and people are going to see it and say 'Oh, Nightingale House, what a wonderful place'," he said.

"The hospice is not a place where you go to die, its a community".

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