Small Handmade Hearts with a Big Meaning

While researching ideas connected to Gifted Smile, I came across the most wonderful group of people — Hookers and Clickers Do It For Charity.

This incredible group of women give up their own time to create handmade items for charities far and wide — hospitals, Leeds Baby Bank, Women’s Aid and many more. Their needles and hooks seem to carry kindness into every corner.

I got in touch with them about something quite small.

Little hearts.

Through Gifted Smile, I support two charities helping people facing a cancer diagnosis.

One is Something to Look Forward To, which raises funds so people going through cancer treatment can enjoy small but meaningful treats during an incredibly difficult time.

The other is The Treatment Bag charity, who provide beautiful comfort bags to patients undergoing cancer treatment. These thoughtful bags are already distributed widely in the South of England, and I’m currently working with the charity to help extend their reach to hospitals in the North.

Each bag already contains comforting and practical items. But I kept thinking how special it would be to include something handmade — a small knitted or crocheted heart — simply to say:

Someone is thinking of you.

When I contacted Hookers and Clickers, their response was immediate and incredibly generous. Not only were they happy to make the little hearts, they also offered to create lap blankets for patients undergoing chemotherapy and scrubbies to help with washing.

Their kindness was immediate, wholehearted and deeply moving.

Groups like this quietly make such a difference. Using donated and leftover yarn — wool that might otherwise sit forgotten — they create items that bring comfort, warmth and reassurance to people who may be going through one of the hardest times of their lives.

I honestly can’t think of a more willing, selfless and remarkable group of people.

Acts of kindness don’t always have to be big. Sometimes the smallest things — a soft heart tucked into a bag, a handmade blanket across your knees — can remind someone that they are not alone.

And that is exactly the spirit behind Gifted Smile.

Interestingly, discovering groups like Hookers and Clickers has also inspired another small idea growing alongside this project. Through The Thirsty Learner, I’ve recently started a gentle knitting and crochet gathering called The Woolly Brigade — a relaxed space where people can come together to make, chat and share skills.

Who knows… perhaps some of those future stitches might also find their way into Gifted Smile bags one day.

Because sometimes creativity and kindness are closer together than we realise.