Much Hoole artist raises over £17,000 for the NSPCC from sales of viral royal sketch

Kerri Cunningham, 34 from Much Hoole, together with Basingstoke-based promotional print firm, THEMPC LTD, has confirmed they have now raised £17,131.40 for the NSPCC, from the sales of a now-viral sketch depicting the late Queen Elizabeth II reunited with Prince Philip, after her death in September.

The sketch was initially drawn by Kerri, who goes by her pen name Murphys Sketches, when she shared the now iconic visual on her Instagram page when news began to break of the monarch’s passing, as a tribute.

The image shows the Royal couple reunited in the afterlife, with the Duke of Edinburgh greeting the Queen with the words, ‘Hello again, Lilibet’.

Soon after, Kerri was inundated with likes and shares from people the sketch had so clearly struck a chord with, and even received emails from people wanting to buy a copy of it.

A cheque was presented by THEMPC owners, Emma and Paul Marsh to Sir Peter Wanless, the CEO of The NSPCC to be used for Childline, which receives contacts from a child every 25 seconds and conducts approximately 200,000 counseling sessions a year. With 12 Childline hubs operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the approximate cost to run Childline daily is £30,000. The money raised by Kerri and THEMPC equates to Childline being powered for over 12 hours.

As fundraising is still ongoing, Kerri and THEMPC hope to make an additional donation in January, with the aim of achieving over £20,000 if sales continue.

In order for Kerri to produce prints on a mass scale, she enlisted the help of THEMPC who, in just a few days, set up a website print shop to facilitate the demand, taking care of everything from order to print and delivery.

Kerri says: “I am thrilled that together with the generous help of THEMPC, we were able to raise such a large amount of money. I can’t think of a more fitting tribute to the Queen than to donate to a charity that, as for many of us, was so clearly close to her heart, and will hopefully go a long way to help children in need.”

Emma Marsh comments: “As soon as we saw that Kerri needed help back in September, we both knew we had to offer our services. It’s been a real labour of love and it’s all been worth it. We are so proud to have helped raise so much money for the NSPCC and although it comes as a result of a sad event, we’re so pleased that something great, to help those who need it the most, has come out of it.”

The prints are still available at print.thempc.co.uk and all proceeds will continue going to the NSPCC.

Artist and writer Kerri Cunningham creates poems and sketches based on her personal experiences of life as a mum to three young children, and sells prints, greetings cards, mugs and other gifts via her website murphyssketches.bigcartel.comKerri’s sketches of Queen Elizabeth II can be purchased by visiting print.thempc.co.uk