Episode 3: Full transcript

 

Introduction

Tim Beynon: Hello and welcome to the charity show, the podcast for charity Insiders by charity Insiders. My name is Tim Beynon, head of marketing engagement at, the firefighters charity.

Piers Townley: And I'm Piers Townley, pr manager at the brain tumour charity. And every fortnight, we're going to shine a light on all that's great about working in the third sector.

Tim Beynon: Yep, that's right. We're going to be talking to people who work for charities across the UK, hearing about the inspiring things they're doing, so we can all do what we do better.

Piers Townley: And we want you to get involved, too. Tell us what your charity is up to, send us your emails and voice messages and let us know what you want us to cover in future episodes.

Tim Beynon: So that's what the Chad show is all about. Get in touch through the links in the show notes, give us a follow, and let's get on with the show.

Welcome to the show

Piers Townley: Hello and welcome to episode three of the charity show with me, Piers Townley.

Tim Beynon: And me, Tim Beynon.

Piers Townley: What have you been up to over the last couple of weeks, Tim?

Tim Beynon: Well, it's been a, we always say every week, but it's always a. It's always a busy time. There's lots, lots going on. But the firefighters charity, we had a bit of good news at the end of May. Basically, we heard from Buckingham palace, who got a nice letter through from Buckingham palace, that the king has, kindly agreed to be our patron, which is fantastic news. And it kind of continues our, links, with the royal family that we've had for a long time. So the queen was our patron for 69 years. So for all but one year of her reign, she was patron of the firefighters charity. so when she died and we lost our patron, which was, you know, tragic, and we were worried as to what would happen next. So we didn't know. We hadn't got a clue whether or not, you know, we'd get another royal patronage. So, to hear that we did was fantastic news for the charity. Really great. Ah, and, you know, as I said, it's a great continuation for us of that, of that link with the royal family. And I think it's a funny one because I think the royal family gets a lot of negative press, but I think having a royal patronage does an amazing amount of good. and it also not only rusts as a charity, but it recognises the, high regard in which the fire service community is held by the royals as well. And that's really important. So it's good news for us. Does mean a bit more work for me because we spent ages taking the queen's name off of lots of items of collateral and lots of items of letter headed paper and all that kind of stuff. Now we've got to put the king back on. So a bit of extra work, but I don't mind that too much. So a bit of good news for us, on that, on that front. And then the rest of the rest of the last couple of weeks, been a bit half term going on, so nice to take a break from work for a bit and, spend some time with the kids and what have you, but that's all breeds its own stresses. But yeah, so a bit of work and a bit of play the last couple of weeks. What about you, piers? What you been able to.

Piers Townley: Oh, we've had some good news at the charity as well, but just going back to that, that's amazing. To get the king's patronage again. Fantastic. And also then quite fitting that his new portrait is flame red. He almost looks like he's surrounded by flames. Anyway, a very striking portrait. And no doubt you'll be having one of those, on the wall at hq now, over at the brain tumour charity. We've had a very busy couple of weeks around the half term. We've reached the one year mark of our charity partnership with Wix, the retail store, and it's hit 1 million pounds of fundraising and money that has been raised for us. So not only is it a fantastic, partnership that brings together the Wix community, I mean, they have over 230 stores nationwide, and they've all been doing their own fundraising events. But I mean, that's a transformational amount of money for us, as a charity. And the partnership is going to extend for another year. So we're hoping, who knows? We could double that as well. So that 1 million mark and that one year partnership has been taking up a lot of our, comms, time over at the charity and a celebration to the community that's out there, that's supporting us in stores and our wider support as well.

Tim Beynon: Yeah, nice one. I've got to go to Wiggs to get some paint later on. Funny enough, today, I've got to go later on today to go and get some paint. So I keep an eye out.

Piers Townley: Keep an eye out for it. Yeah.

Coming up

So what's coming up on this show today, Tim?

Tim Beynon: Well, we've got, we've got a great show coming, up. In fact, you could say we've got a super show coming up as we've got, we're going to be talking to Sarah White, chief executive of Super Shoes now. They're a brilliantly creative and volunteer driven charity that is basically grown from a dream which started life on, on Sarah's kitchen table, to a national charity that is now supporting hundreds of children living with cancer every year. So an incredibly worthy cause and a fantastic, organisation. And talking to Sarah, actually, we talk about the whole subject of creativity and taking an idea to such fantastic levels as she has got me thinking about creativity, but also about volunteering. June is national, community month. Volunteers week also falls, this month as well. Really important week for volunteers. So what's your experience of both of those peers, in terms of volunteering and creativity? Are you a bit of an artist? Have you volunteered for stuff? What's your story on those fronts?

Piers Townley: I don't consider myself a bit of an artist. I'm lucky to be surrounded, at the charity with some incredible artistic and creative people from the events team that dream up mad events, or, our designers that design all our collateral and help to do all our comms and shape the way that looks. Personally, I love being around it. I love being part of it. I think as a comms team, you have to be around it, have to think in that realm. You have to think creatively to get the charity messages in your comm sorted out. And on a volunteer, angle, they are the lifeblood, as they are of most charities. Our volunteers are just some superb people that support us, whether it's cheer points for the London marathon, or whether it's merchandise packing, or whether it's being our young ambassador programme that has a young people that are affected by brain tumours, that go out there and they campaign and they raise funds and raise awareness and they back all our policy campaigns. So volunteers, as a professional level, part of our charity, they're the lifeblood of it. On a personal level. Yeah. When I can do. I have done, a personal thing for me is it's my kayak and the Basingstoke Canal. There's a volunteer section of the Basingstoke Canal organisation that's, you know, the clear towpaths and do some of that maintenance and just make that part of that community spirit in maintaining that as a thing that's in good shape and is available to everyone who wants to use it. So that's my little bit of volunteer work that every now and again or when I can do, I have done.

Tim Beynon: It's important because, I mean, everyone uses that canal, everyone uses those topars and if no one kept them clear and they just get overgrown and it'd be a mess. So it does feel like, you know, you're doing support in your local community when you do stuff like that. I'm very, very similar. I haven't got a. Well, I wouldn't say I haven't got a creative bone in my body. We're creative every day, especially in a comms front and marketing, you know, you have to be creative to rise above the noise in terms of, you know, in terms of what you're doing. If you were to ask me to paint a horse, on the other hand, there's no chance on earth it would look like a horse. So I have. I'm not artistic in the slightest. My daughter, is, she's incredible. She can, she can draw really well. But yeah, if you'd asked me to draw something like a hand or a person or whatever, I couldn't do it. I mean I look like a, like a, like a two year old's had a go. Terrible. But in terms of volunteering, I spent four years as a beaver leader when my kids were younger and I absolutely loved it. But it was such hard work. It was such hard work. it was great fun, huge responsibility. Looking after a whole bunch of six to eight year olds whose names I could never remember. I was terrible at remembering names. but I did enjoy it. The one thing I did find, I must admit though, as a volunteer, is it's very rare to get. Thanks. That's something I think volunteers put up with, a lot. We would look after all these kids every week and it wasn't that often that parents would say thank you. I find that a little bit galling. It didn't take away from the fact that it was a great experience and I really enjoyed it with the guys I was doing it with. But just kind of think sometimes volunteers don't get that recognition that people do take them for granted. So I think that's part of the downside of being a volunteer. But there you go. It comes with the territory.

Piers Townley: I suppose that's a very good point, actually. I think outside of an organisation, charity organisation, third sector organisation, people don't realise how much of an impact and how much of a necessity the volunteers are for them. That's why things like the volunteering week is so, important to showcase all the incredible work that they do.

This week's news: Rob Burrow and Chelsea Flower Show

It's that time of the show again where we take a deep dive into third sector news. What's caught your eye this week? Ten.

Tim Beynon: Well, I think, the biggest piece of news to happen for a long time that's affected a lot of people and, has made headline news, across the country is the sad death of Rob Burrow, who, impacted so many people's lives. He was an inspirational guy and really, led from the front in terms of the MND community, raising awareness and doing a huge amount of good. And I just wanted to sort of pay homage to him, really. I mean, I think he's an incredible guy, incredible sportsman, with an, incredible history with Leeds, rhinos and England. and he's quite a small guy, but made quite a big impact on the field during his playing days. And then afterwards and over the last four and a half years, as he's been living with MND, what an amazing, achievement he made over that time. Raising awareness and doing so much good and raising so much money as well, for Leeds, hospital charity, as, ah, well, he raised in total around 5.8 million pounds. And I think something that's really worth noting, actually, is that, tragically, really the day after he died, the Rob Burroughs centre for motor neurone disease. The groundbreaking ceremony for that which is essentially Rob's legacy. This incredible building and this incredible place that he wanted to create for, people with motor neurone disease. Literally the spades hit the ground the day after Rob passed away. And, you know, in a weird way, and reading what people say, I'm so glad it was able to happen that day after. And that his family gave their blessing for it. To go ahead and just reading here a quote from professor, ah, Phil Wood, who's the chief executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust. He said, it's a sad day, but it's also a day to celebrate. We are starting work today on the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor neurone Disease. A centre that was Rob's vision. The new centre will help advance our patient care. Best practise sharing and hopefully research in the long term, which will be such a fitting legacy for Rob. Rob's vision was very much at the centre of this project. And his determination and grit that he demonstrated throughout his life and his illness is really what's got us here today. So I just think what an incredible legacy to leave behind. And, hopefully that building and that place will support people for many, many years to come. And, the impact he's made in that community and in that space will last forever. So an inspiring guy with an inspiring legacy. and I think we should all pay homage to him, really. So that was my news for this week.

Piers Townley: Totally agree. I think Rob's story and his campaigning just united so many people in the community. So many people are not associated with the charity, but took on his story and his background, his rugby career and just. Yeah, it was quite an incredible legacy that, he has left behind.

Tim Beynon: Yeah, absolutely.

Project Giving Back

What about you, piers? What have you seen in the news this week? Actually, I think about it. I think I heard a rumour you've been mixing it with a hoi polloi at the Chelsea Flower show. Is that right?

Piers Townley: I've been dusting off my gardening gloves and seeing if I can get all green fingered. Yes. It's just to highlight, actually that the, obviously, the Chelsea Flower show has been all over the news. This is an, international event. It's world renowned, it's very, very high profile. But one angle of it that I don't think a lot of people know is their charitable arm, which is called project giving back. Now, in the last few years, they have set up, an award so the charities can apply to have their own gardens at the Chelsea Flower show and showcase the work that each charity does and provide a legacy. What's really interesting about is those winning designs that actually make it into physical gardens. They are then taken, they're sometimes they're broken up or as a garden as a whole, they are then put, somewhere of note that is irrelevant to the charity. So this could be at a hospice or a research centre on the grounds of a hospital. So this year, 2024, there were 15 gardens that were awarded space at the Chelsea Flower show. The likes of muscular dystrophy UK, the BAU Research UK, Sue Ryder National Autistic Society, which had a fantastic sensual sensory garden. Bow Research garden was incredible, by the way. They had an edible garden, which was really fascinating. And you can see the flocks of people were really, interested in the story about gut health and promoting the research that the charity did with their edible garden, which was just fantastic. Now, the brain trimmer charity were guests of project giving back. We unfortunately didn't make the final cut. We went through all of the process of it, but just to see these gardens given showcasing was just, incredible. And then to read about the legacy, the way these gardens were then going to live on for each of the charity causes that they represented was just fantastic. So as a thing, as part of the Chelsea Flower show, it was just a really interesting thing to sing back. Project giving back. It's called and I think they're going to be running it next year as well. So challenges will be putting in their applications and getting on board associated designers and coming up with pictures for the application. And we caught up with Melanie Day from the Brain tumour charity. She highlighted the importance of project giving back and the awareness that the Chelsea Flower show can have for individual UK charities.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Partnerships such as Project giving back and working with the garden designers that give their time to design the garden for the charities are really important because they give the charities opportunities that on their own they just wouldn't be able to get, leading to public awareness of the cause and hopefully in the long term, more donations and support their charity.

Tim Beynon: Amazing to hear from Melanie. It sounds like an incredible, opportunity for charities to make an impression at a place where obviously there's a lot of money around as well, the Chelsea and Flower show. So I'm sure it's a great opportunity for charities to mix with some high net worth individuals there as well, I imagine.

Piers Townley: And also you mentioned the king has been patron of your charity there, Tim. Obviously they were there on the exclusive pride this opening day of Monday. So, yeah, the awareness can't be underestimated. This is outside of the UK, internationally, it's a, very renowned event. It's up there with the Ascots or with Wimbledon.

Tim Beynon: You've mentioned lots of people around the Bow Research UK chat. Were they all eating the garden?

Piers Townley: That's one question we didn't do. And I didn't have this, didn't have the courage to reach over and grab one of their blooms because I wasn't actually know what I was going for. But again, a really creative way of representing their research and, you know, a takeaway point, you know, they had an edible garden.

Supershoes

Turning a creative idea into reality is never easy. But turning that initial idea into a national charity, recruiting an army of volunteers and providing hundreds of children with a moment of pure joy during the toughest time of their life, is a challenge that few would ever even contemplate. However, that's exactly what Sarah White, chief executive of Super Shoes, did. A talented artist with a vision to make a difference. She saw how powerful custom designed shoes for children with cancer, featuring each child's favourite things can be. Bringing that vision to life. She has, over the past eleven years, pull together a collective of, ah, brilliantly talented volunteer artists and secured partnerships with household named shoe brands to create a charity is able to bring joy to the lives of hundreds of poorly children each year. Embracing an operational model that combines creativity with volunteer engagement supershoes is a small charity that is making waves. And as Sarah explained to Tim and I when we caught up with her recently, it is a charity with high hopes for the future. So thanks for coming on the show, Sarah.

Welcome Sarah, CEO of Supershoes

We've admired super shoes for some time. The innovation, the uniqueness of them, and the colourful joy they must bring to so many children. Can you summarise what the charity does and the milestones you've recently reached?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Yeah. Thanks, Peter. it's great to be here. Thank you for inviting me along. Super M Shoes is a national registered charity and our mission is to boost the wellbeing of children who are in treatment for cancer. And we do this in a very unique way with shoes and with artwork. we have referrals from all over the country. Every paediatric oncology unit refers children to us. And, we receive a list of things that a child likes. So it could be their favourite tv programme, pop star games they like to play, favourite pets. And so we've received this list, so we know all about them, what they like and also their shoe size. And, what we do is ask one of our volunteer artists to create a bespoke pair of customised shoes, especially for that particular child. So whatever they're into is painted on their shoes and we give them as a gift, which really gives them a big boost, makes them feel super special. We've been doing this now for getting on for nearly eleven years and we've recently delivered our, 7000th pair of super shoes.

Piers Townley: That's incredible. That's incredible amount of pairs of shoes I've come across. Well, we both come across your charity because we know that we know one of your artists. And then from the brain tumour charity, I think a couple of people that we support have had those shoes as well. So it is just, an incredible idea going back to just in the early sort of days. How did you progress the concept? How did you kind of get the idea off the ground?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Well, we never started off to set up a charity and it was what you like, a random act of kindness that grew very organically in the early days. yeah, we eventually became a registered charity in 2015, but in the very early days it was about. It was about a little boy, I read in a paper, live locally in Milton Keynes at four years old, that had been diagnosed with neuroblastoma. So I didn't know the little boy. I just knew of his plight and that his family were, at the time trying to raise funds to take him abroad for potential life saving treatment. And so I wanted to do something to help. I wanted him to help make him feel super special, but I also wanted to raise awareness with people as well. And I'd seen an idea in the States where somebody was painting on shoes for very poorly children and remember seeing the impact it was having. And, I said to my husband, it'd be great to give this little boy a pair of hand painted shoes. And my husband said, why don't you then?

Piers Townley: So it's his fault, then.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: It's his fault.

Piers Townley: So when you're going through the tough times or when you're going through tough times, you can point and point the finger at him.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Exactly. Exactly.

Early days of Supershoes

Piers Townley: Was there a moment in the early days, Sarah, where you had a kind of doubt that it would actually work? It would become a thing, I think.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Because we didn't set out to achieve a thing other than make one little boy feel super and to raise some awareness, which we did straight away. what happened then was people would get in touch and saying, could you make super shoes for my poorly child? And it was a case of, how do you say no? So you find a way, to fund the pair of shoes and to find an artist to paint them. And so it grew very organically, and it wasn't, oh, wow, we must do this, for everybody. It was a sort of step at a time, pardon the pun, you know, one pair of shoes at a time. And before we knew it, we'd painted 50 pairs of super shoes. And it just went on from there. Never had any doubts that we could reach the numbers of children that we had, because our artists and other artists out there want to get involved and to give their time. And, of course, we have to do the bit where we go and raise the funds.

Tim Beynon: Of course, that's always the tricky bit, isn't it? It's raising the funds quite often. I, love the concept. I love, the whole idea. I love just that journey of taking a concept, taking an idea, and, transforming it into a charity that is now today supporting so many children in an amazing way, in a very, very unique way. I really love it.

Supershoes' volunteer model

Tell me a little bit about the model, Sarah. in terms of, we are, aware so many charities rely on volunteers, but the model for super shoes very much relies on at its heart, you have that army of artists. Tell us a little bit about how that works, how you work with them, and how that whole sort of model of engagement with your volunteers works.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: well, I think it's we have 250 volunteer artists currently, and the way it works is they get to choose as and when they paint. so we ask an artist, when they join our team, to paint a minimum of three pairs a year. But to be honest, painting super shoes is quite addictive. And most people have painted ten pairs within a space of two months, and so it goes on. And we've got artists that have painted over 100 pairs. We've got one artist in particular that's painted over 200 pairs. And I think what it is for our, volunteer artists especially, is that they may not be fortunate enough to make an living from their creativity and, few and far between. can you actually earn a great living from art? Unfortunately. So we have a lot of artists that have this amazing gift and talent, but they don't use it as their day job. And for them to be able to paint such a unique gift, for a very, very poorly child, and then actually to see that child wearing them is really magical. I mean, what, what a great gift. You are so much part of the journey for that recipient and their family.

Tim Beynon: Obviously, June always shines a spotlight on the incredible work of volunteers across our sector. Tell us a little bit about as you grow and that number of volunteers grows, how do you engage with them? How do you keep them engaged? How does that work? Is that an increasingly hard challenge as you grow in size?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Yes and no. I think the way that we work is we have a closed Facebook group where all of our artists are members of that group. So that's where we communicate about what the charity is doing, what we need right now. so it has such a lovely team aspect to it. Although these individual artists, we're all working towards this bigger, Cause this bigger picture, and that's how everybody feels part of it. and people share their artwork on there, and there's a lot of beautiful interactions where maybe an artist has found a great technique for creating a galaxy sky, and they filmed how to do it, and that will be. It's a very giving environment, the whole Facebook group in itself, having all these volunteers in one place. And I think when an artist signs up and becomes part of that, they feel that even though they're not in the same location, we have artists all over the country. it's a big part of what we do that they feel part of it, and, of course, that's where they select the shoes that they paint as well within that group.

Tim Beynon: I think that's an important lesson there for people in terms of that, the importance of community importance of, you know, volunteers aren't individuals working in isolation. They're often part of a community and you're bringing them together. So I think that's a really important lesson there.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, our artists are all from very different walks of life. We have, or we have tattoo artists, face painters and body painters, makeup artists. We have art teachers, lecturers in art, and then we have people that don't do anything with art in their day job. We have a HGV driver. She's a brilliant artist. And it's kind of just have this inbuilt skill, creativity that they can use as an outlet for super shoes. So this sort of melting pot of volunteers, if you like, it all works beautifully when they come together because our, our common reason for being there are perfumers is to boost the wellbeing of these brave children.

Tim Beynon: as piers mentioned, we know one of your artists, Lisa D'Souza, who's a brilliant local creative, very super, super talented. If there are other budding lisas out there who listening to this or finding out a bit more about supershoes, might m want to get involved? How can they do so?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Oh, yes, please. go to our website. We would love to hear from you. You go to supershoes.org dot UK artists apply and get in touch with us there and tell us a bit about you or send us some pictures of your artwork.

Piers Townley: And obviously, Sarah, every volunteer artist has a unique style, and I guess the same can be said from each of the children. So they want their own personalised shoe. Is it tricky matching the design with the artist or vice versa? Is that a little bit of to and fro?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Well, it used to be in the very early days when we had probably about 20 artists, I used to choose the design for the artist. And, you know, I used to think, well, such and such is good at, portraits, you know, will you do these? And then actually, as time went on and we had, a bigger group of artists, we actually now allow the artist to choose what they want. It's far, far better than me trying to select a pair because it gives the artists the autonomy to, play to their strengths. or if they're feeling particularly confident, maybe they've painted, you know, 1015 pairs of shoes and maybe they want to push what they would normally paint, into a different style. Or, you know, it's kind of left with them and trusting them, to make sure that they selecting something within, within, you know, their creativity set. But like, going back to Lisa and her incredible skill at pet portraits. It's phenomenal what Lisa can do. you know, when we first saw her very first pair of super shoes, it was a wow moment. You know, when we open them in the office, it's like, wow, how can that be so, perfect when you look at that portrait? and it's great that Lisa. Then, you know, when Lisa's available, she'll step forward and paint the pet portraits, because we don't have a lot of pet portrait artists, so the team kind of works. So it's dynamic working to our strengths. But, you know, there's so many different things that we paint, because the age that we paint for is little babies, sadly, you know, four month old babies right up, to the age of 18 currently. So if you can think about what, a recipient might be into, it's kind of vast. So there's something for everybody. And, from a Thomas the tank engineer or a peppa pig right up to sort of more young people's interests.

Piers Townley: That's an incredible amount of stories out there. That's an incredible amount of children out there who wanted to get involved. So, I mean, the personal stories we know from all the charities, it's the personal stories that are, the lifeblood of what we do. Is it fair to say that's born of your, your biggest promotional assets, the personal stories there? And are parents and the children always kind of willing to sort of help share, their stories to help, you know, boost the awareness of the shoes?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Yeah, not always. some families are incredibly private about their journey, and that's absolutely fine. We respect that. we don't expect, to see photos and videos of children, but we do love it when that happens, and we do see shoes being worn, and especially for our artists, you know, when they've given m maybe an entire weekend to painting a pair of shoes, then to see them being worn or walked in. And sometimes you get, you know, videos of kids running and jumping in their super shoes, and you think that's really what we want to see, is the fact that, you know, it's encouraged them to get up out of bed or off the couch and make feel like they want to run a jump. And little super, a lot of little children can say they feel like they've got superhero powers when they wear their super shoes. But, yeah, I mean, the stories, they speak for themselves, and we let that happen. Our recipients, they do all the talking for us. Parents telling us that it's the biggest smile they've seen in a long, long time. And that we've managed to capture their child perfectly on a pair of super shoes, and that they feel more confident wearing them and it's something that they're friends can't have and it makes them feel special. And it's also, interestingly a talking point where people might not know what to say to a very obviously poorly child. But we quite often hear that people will start a conversation about their shoes. you know, like, wow, they're cool shoes. And then the child can then talk about their interests and what they like and they can also say, well, I've got these because I've got cancer.

Piers Townley: Yeah.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: And we find that as quite often that's fed back to us as a conversation point and allows them the control to be able to talk about what they want to talk about and also putting the design together, you know, thinking about what they like and what they're in. Yeah. It gives them the control that they might not otherwise have in day to day life.

Tim Beynon: It is incredible. I mean, the shoes, looking at some of the pictures of some of the shoes are so beautiful and so incredibly detailed and, you know, I don't know how I'd feel, actually, if I was an artist seeing. I mean, you want kids to run around with them, but I think, you know, also she just got one of them to stay on a shelf in, or in a display cabinet somewhere. They look so beautiful. But yeah, of course you want to see kids running around in them. Of course you do.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Yeah. I think some of the best photos we've had are actually in really worn out. Worn out and beaten up shoes that have been outside, because that's what we want ultimately, is for those shoes to be worn to the park, on the climbing frame down the slide. You know, that's, that's what, that's what they're there for. So we love that.

Tim Beynon: Absolutely, of course.

The power of being a small charity

as we sort of head into June, we're also coming up to small, charity week, which falls, at the end of June. tell me a little bit about how you find competing. Obviously, there are some huge cancer charities out there that, vying for every penny in people's pockets and vying for attention and publicity and awareness. You are relatively new to the market, as it were, and having to sort of take on those giant organisations. How much of a challenge is that for you? are you, having to sort of look over your shoulder a bit at them or do you find that there is plenty of space out there and that actually, you know, there is room for super shoes.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: It's an interesting one. I don't really see, the competitiveness and I never have. We work with a very large charity, young lights versus cancer, where, ah, they're our referring partner and we have a national agreement with them and we wouldn't be able to reach all the children that we reach without them. M so it's a great relationship in the fact that they refer children to us. We know that they're eligible for super shoes because they've been referred and so actually we find a larger charity. Working with the large Tarris is certainly very, very useful, in doing what we do. I think there's room for everybody. I think we're all doing the best we can. We're not big enough to have a marketing department or, we don't have any expertise like that in the charity at the moment. we've only got two part time employed staff. Everybody else is a volunteer. and I think in some ways being a part of something, maybe classed as smaller, but mighty in the fact that you're part of it, stands us in good stead, if you like, for people being fulfilled. And I think for all volunteers, there's something within us that wants to contribute and make the wilderness a better place for others. And I think being a smaller charity, you can do that and see the outcome yourself of what you've done. And I think, that's how we look at it.

Tim Beynon: I can't remember the stats, but I think looking into small charity weeks, something like 95% of charities in the UK are small charities. It's a vast number of organisations like supershoes that are doing incredible work. But on a micro, it's not that you're doing work on a micro scale, but compared to some of, those giant organisations, you are operating on a different level but doing an incredible amount of good. What's the biggest challenge that you find? Being an organisation of your size, I.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Think it would be great to have that team, more of a paid workforce in place. I know it's coming up for national volunteers week and we certainly couldn't do what we do without the volunteers. But having a, paid workforce in place where you have somebody that's doing your social media for you, someone that's doing marketing, it's a little bit more all hands on deck approach, which is fun, it can be challenging, but looking to the long term sustainability, that's what I'm looking for for supershoes is to have some more key positions as paid staff that can take on that role and drive it forward. But I think we would never be where we are without our incredible volunteers. But we just need that sort of supporting pillars if you like, rather than it sitting in just one person or two people's lamps.

Working with partners

Tim Beynon: And tell us a bit as well about partners, about how you work with your partners. Obviously really important. notice that I think it's converse and shoe. Our major partners, they're big brands, themselves. how do you find working with partners in terms of getting them to put pen to paper and being as committed as they are?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Wow, it's been tough. I remember with the first numbers of pairs of super shoes that we created we couldn't get a discount for the shoes that we were buying. We had the buying power of one person going into a shoe shop. But I think you can't ignore what we've achieved. Commonwerse have been incredibly good to us. We now have an account with them and we get our shoes when we need them and they've been really, really good to us. I think it took a long time to engage because they're a huge organisation. They're owned by Nike, based in the Netherlands. So to get attention when you're a tiny, tiny charity m painting a small number of shoes which we were then, so we've opened a dialogue with them for quite a number of years and then two years ago I got to go and meet with them at headquarters and told them a few stories about what we do with their shoes. and it really does well with the converse brand themselves which is all about self identity. Ah, if you look back through the Chuck tablet years it's all about self identity. So what we do with the shoes, slightly different but it's still about self identity.

Piers Townley: And I guess the beauty of those shoes, Sarah, is what it literally is a canvas in physically with the material but also with the way those shoes are. I mean they are and then they become such a lifeline, such a personal thing for the children that have them. Do you consider any other items to personalise? Is there anything else that you were looking?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Yeah indeed. And so I think it was going about four years ago and we were approached by a support worker for a young boy who was unable to wear shoes. And she said we really do need to give him a boost. He's having a really hard time but he can't wear shoes. What can you do? so we put our thinking cap on and came up with a super cap. it's a baseball cap that we paint in the same way as the shoes. We personalise them. We can't get as much detail on because it's just one small area, if you like, but we can still make something really special. so the supercaps are now an option. we paint probably about four a month. The, mainstay is super shoes, where at the moment we're creating about 20 pairs of super shoes. Every week we post 20 pairs off to recipients and we send 20 pairs off to artists waiting to paint. So we've done the super cap and we've also painted a t shirt. this was for, a little girl that couldn't tolerate very much at all. when you're going through such treatment like chemotherapy, it can make your skin incredibly sensitive. And she couldn't wear shoes or caps or anything, really, other than a t shirt. So we painted a t shirt for her, which she thoroughly enjoyed, but that's not so much an easier thing for us to do. The shoes and the caps are a little bit easier to work with because they're canvas. I bought a pair of shoes to show you, actually. M if you like.

Piers Townley: Please show. Yeah, please, please describe them. Which ones have you got in front of you there?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Yeah. So these are for 17 year old Georgia. And she loves Doctor who. You see the Tardis and David Tennon Doctor who especially. And she also likes Spider man. And so she wanted the shoes to be very different. And so most of the time the shoes are.

Piers Townley: Is that a left on the right there?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Yeah. Yeah.

Piers Townley: That's fantastic, because the design you're showing us is covering the entire converse, isn't it?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: It's painted all over.

Piers Townley: Beautiful.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Yeah. So each shoe is generally different. You'll have a, different, match up. but this was specifically asked for. Georgia wanted a spider man shoe and, a da lintenant doctor who shoe, to have that separate. But in 17 years of age, she knows what she likes, but hopefully we've done her justice. They're going to go off to her tomorrow, so hopefully they give her a big smile and make her feel special.

The future of Supershoes

Piers Townley: What does the future hold for super shoes? What are the ambitions? What are the things that you're maybe nervous of going forward? Obviously try to compete in this very cost of living crisis is very difficult times for charities. And what are the things you're, looking forward to for the next few years?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Yeah, well, I've, I've got no doubt that we'll always continue with what we do at super shoes, even if it had to go back to my kitchen table, and, where we didn't reach as many children as we do now, but we can curl up in a little ball if we have to, but we can still continue with what we do, so we can scale down, but hopefully what we will do is scale up. So we're looking for more artists to join our team, so we can reach more children, because we know that there's twelve children every day are diagnosed in the UK with cancer. So there's so much more that we can do. We want to reach children first and foremost. But there's other activities, that we've done in the past that we want to be able to do in the future as well. In 2018, we held a super arty party where we invited hundreds of children and their families, to an all day event. It was actually held up in Birmingham, where we had all kinds of activities. We had live music, stream food, we had a disco, a circus act. But the main part of that day was a, massive big ballroom, if you like, with ten tables dotted through, and each table has an artist facilitating an art project. And it was all about the self and that self identity. So what can we put a name on? You know, let's do caps, pencil cases, bags, purses, you know, you name it. We got kids putting their name on everything, and, drawing and painting and glueing and sticking. And the feedback we had from that day, it was incredible. It wasn't just the child, the Pawnee child, it was the whole family. You know, they were engaging with other families, where they maybe only just see them in the hospital wards passing by. They actually got to sit and chat. And for the whole family to enjoy a day like that, we want to do more of that in the future. So that's our plans, is to reignite that, super arty party, which, of course, we had to stop during the pandemic.

Tim Beynon: I love that idea. Fantastic. Fantastic idea. And I wish you all the very best for the future.

Advice to others

Final question from me, Sarah. What advice would you give to someone who may be listening to this, who is creative, has a creative idea, and wants to do good, and perhaps is inspired by the story of supershoes? What would your advice be to them?

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: I'm going to steal or borrow a well known catchphrase from a shoe company, which would be, just do it. just do it. It might fall flat on its face, it might be a disaster, but actually, it couldn't more likely be an incredible journey, maybe a rolling coaster at times, but you'll be with people with like minded attitudes that wanting to do something can make a difference to people. And, yeah, I don't regret it for 1 minute. It's been an incredible honour to run.

Piers Townley: Super shoes and it's an amazing charity, Sarah. So if people go over and supershoes.org dot uk, there is a gallery there. I'm just looking at it now. Hundreds and hundreds of just outstanding pieces of art. I mean, your volunteers are just a lifeblood and the children's stories are just incredible as well. So a fantastic charity. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

<name>Speaker C: Unidentified</name>: Thank you so much. It's been a, pleasure. Thank you.

This week's Superstars

Tim Beynon: Okay, it's time once again to give a shout out to some brilliant people. In each episode of the chat show, we want to celebrate some of the incredible people working, volunteering and fundraising across our sector. And you can nominate your deserving colleagues, volunteers or superstar fundraisers too. Just email us at, thecharityshowpodmail ah.com or get in touch through the links in the show notes. You can even send us a voice message that we can play out in the next episode. And this week we had a great message from Nikita Schiele, who works for a youth focused mental health charity called the Wolfpack Project. And, ah, Nikita wanted to nominate volunteer Nihar Kandakar, who says Nikita has volunteered more than 500 hours towards the charity's cause, specifically helping to raise awareness of the charity's campaign for men's mental Health Month. NiHA was out and about on university campuses, spreading the message about all the incredible work that the Wolfpack project does to help reduce loneliness and promote positive mental health amongst 16 to 35 year olds. So we just want to say well done, Nihar, we think you're brilliant too. And thanks so much for the nomination, Nikita. And for anyone else listening, if you've got an amazing a supporter, an amazing volunteer, amazing fundraiser, someone you want to give a shout out to, just send us an email or get in touch with the show notes and we'll give them a shout out too. So that's neat. what about you, piers? Who have you got this week?

Piers Townley: I've got a wonderful story about a wonderful fundraiser this week. My superstar nomination is for Shilpa Sheddev. Hopefully I've pronounced her name right there. She recently jumped out of a plane on her 30th birthday for leukaemia UK. Now, the lovely detail about her is that after needing blood transfusions following her own leukaemia diagnosis as a teenager, she's now working for the NHS as part of their blood donation service. And Sheila said the diagnosis had such a huge impact on my life in so many ways. Professionally. It's so rewarding being able to talk to patients and donors. I do share with them that I'm a regular recipient of donated blood. The response is phenomenal when they see a living example of the reason why they donate. This is also about giving back to a cause, she said, which has profoundly impacted on my life. In fact, I owe my existence to the incredible work, of leukaemia UK. I would encourage others to support the charity in any way that they can. So, a wonderful story of someone who's benefited from all the hard work and all the dedicated research and support that charity does. Giving some of that back and also inspiring Shilpa, in her career, actually working for the NHS. So, a wonderful story this weekend.

Tim Beynon: Yeah, amazing. Just something also, just to just pick it up on, something that you mentioned in there. Of course, people who give blood, they're the ultimate volunteers, aren't they? What amazing people. Shilpa benefited, hugely from blood transfusions, which she's needed following her diagnosis. But it wasn't for those amazing volunteers who take themselves to the blood donation points and give a pint, whenever they do. Amazing people. So we must thank and recognise all of them as well, especially as it's June is volunteers and community month. So give them a huge shout out.

Piers Townley: Exactly. I've got a couple of friends who are kind of have a competition about how many times they have donated blood. It's getting quite out of hand. But yes, you're right. A fantastic way to volunteer and to give back.

Tim Beynon: They're just doing it for the biscuits.

Piers Townley: They are. The biscuits in the cup will take.

Coming soon

Tim Beynon: So that's it for this episode. Huge thanks to Sarah White for sharing the story of supershoes and hopefully inspiring all those creative people out there to think about how you can use your talents to change lives. What have we got coming up over the next few weeks, piers?

Piers Townley: Well, we're going to ask whether we should all be running scared at the prospect of AI taking over the third sector, or alternatively, embracing it. We're also going to discover what it takes to be a great strategic leader and shine a spotlight on the psyche of the average great british donor.

Tim Beynon: That all sounds great. Got lots coming up there. Looking forward to all that. Unless, of course, I end up getting replaced by an AI, voice you never know. Could happen. And there are loads of ways you can get involved in future episodes, too. We'd love to hear about the great work your charity is doing, for example. Or if you've got an idea for a topic or a story you'd like us to cover, let us know about it.

Piers Townley: Absolutely. You can get in touch through the links in the show notes or email us at, thecharityshowpodmail.com. so come and join us to share your great work, or nominate someone outstanding for a superstar of the week mention.

Tim Beynon: And in the meantime, please follow us on your usual podcast platform and leave us a review, both of which help other charity folks to find the show.

Piers Townley: So that's it for this episode. Take care and we'll see you soon.