Celebrities donate art for online charity auction in memory of Bexhill schoolgirl

It hopes postcards designed by the likes of Gilbert & George, Axel Scheffler, Pure Evil, Korky Paul, Victoria Coren Mitchell and others will allow them to match the £30,000 they raised in 2020.

Sophie Maria Taylor was just 12 when she lost her battle with cancer on April 5, 2017.

A well-liked and talented student, pupils and staff from St Richard’s Catholic College have been determined to keep her memory alive and support The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity who provided care for her and her family.

Sophie’s Postcard is an online charity auction which consists of original artworks donated by professional artists, designers and illustrators, plus artists from St Richard’s Catholic College and the general public.

The secret auction is held on eBay and keeps the identity of each artist secret until the auction is over.

In the auctions run in 2018 and 2020 they managed to raise a total of £46,000 for the charity. This year they are hoping donations by a number of celebrities, including Gilbert & George, Axel Scheffler, Pure Evil, Korky Paul, and Victoria Coren Mitchell, will see them match the £30,000 they raised two years ago.

Miranda Pennington, an art teacher at the school, said: “Sophie Maria Taylor was an artistically-gifted and popular pupil at St Richard’s Catholic College who sadly lost her battle with cancer in 2017.

"We wanted to do something special to remember her and to celebrate her all-too-brief life. Chiara, a class-mate and friend of Sophie who shared her passion for art, came up with the idea of holding a secret artists’ postcard auction to raise funds for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, whose hospital had treated and cared for Sophie and her family during her illness.

“We are now holding the auction for the third time. In 2018 we had 550 postcards donated and in 2020 over 1100. I have written to hundreds of artists to ask them to take part and Miss Rowlands, an English teacher at St Richard's, has encouraged pupils to write to celebrities.

"Our social media has grown since we started the auction and I regularly post and ask artists to take part and the website helps. Now #sophiespostcard is established with so many well known artists linked to the event other artists want to be involved.

“It is very difficult to say what we will raise but if we reach 1000 postcards, which I think is possible with three weeks left until the artist deadline, it might be possible to raise £30,000 again which would just be amazing.”

A spokesperson for The Royal Marsden said: “We are immensely grateful to St Richard’s Catholic College for their continued support of The Royal Marsden’s Oak Centre for Children and Young People, in memory of Sophie.

"The money raised for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity through Sophie’s Postcard will make a massive difference, helping to fund world-leading research into developing life-saving treatments for young cancer patients at The Royal Marsden.

“Thank you also to all the incredibly talented artists and kind bidders for their generosity. I can’t wait to see all the fantastic artwork this year.”

The art auction will be live on eBay for ten days starting June 30, 2022 and ending on July 9. All proceeds will go to The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. For more information on how to support the school’s efforts please visit the #sophiespostcard website.