In memory of mum: Allerton café hoping to raise thousands for Marie Curie this Mother’s Day

Allerton café owner Hannah Todd is hoping to raise thousands of pounds for Marie Curie in Woolton this month as part of the charity’s annual Great Daffodil Appeal in memory of her mum.

Hannah, owner of The Interesting Eating Company, is planning to donate money from sales of a host of goodies like daffodil cakes, Pancake Boxes, and Mother’s Day Afternoon Teas to the Marie Curie hospice in Liverpool, as well as hold a month-long raffle.

She says: “We are so lucky to have this wonderful local hospice which makes a huge difference to the people who need it and use it.

“Marie Curie was so good to my mum, and an absolute lifeline for me and my family, and I want to do my bit to help keep it going.

“Most funding comes from donations – I think it costs around £7,000 per day to fund the Woolton Marie Curie Hospice. So, if I can give even a small amount back for what they did for me and my family, I’ll be over the moon.”

Hannah’s mum, a well-known Liverpool dentist, Judith Todd, died in June 2017, six months after being diagnosed with liver cancer.

Judith, who was 66, spent 10 days being cared for by Marie Curie and Hannah says she and her family, including her dad and four siblings, could come and go as they pleased: “It provided a safe place for us to go as a family and they looked after mum so well.

“It’s not just for end of life care either, but respite care too. And, although it is a hospice, it’s a happy place, with a play area for children, and a lovely garden area.”

This year will be the first Mother’s Day and March fundraiser organised by Hannah who took over TIEC after the pandemic, having worked there for 10 years before.

She explains: “I don’t always enjoy working on Mother’s Day anymore because it can be an emotional day and I can’t predict how I’ll feel, but I can’t ignore it so I thought this year – now I’m the one making the decisions at TIEC – I would do something to turn the day into a positive.

“My sister Ruth is running the London Marathon for Marie Curie, having trekked through Nepal previously, so I wanted to do something, and I hope this will be the first of many years that we’ll raise money for Marie Curie for Mother’s Day and March.”

Money raised will include:

* 50p from the sale of every daffodil cake

* £1 from every Pancake Box (which includes pancakes, white chocolate sauce, strawberries, marshmallows, maple syrup, jelly beans, Oreos, and Nutella)

* £1 from every Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea sold on the weekend of March 18-19 (which includes sandwiches, pancakes, waffles, macarons, lemon cake, strawberry and white chocolate hearts, marshmallows, Oreos and strawberries)

The raffle costs £1 per ticket with prizes of pancake boxes worth £15 and £25 from TIEC, an afternoon tea, three £10 vouchers for 52 Rose Lane, £50 voucher for Sacred Fortune Tattoo, a £25 voucher from Chandlers, a Kentia palm from Chandlers, framed scrabble art from Efytastic Designs and a crochet/knitting class from Wendy Stevens, ‘and hopefully more’.

Says Hannah: “It’s all in memory of mum. I am doing something positive in her name, and I’m doing something positive for me – and for Marie Curie.

“It will make Mother’s Day and March far more enjoyable.”