PINK guardian angels are flying off the shelves at a Swansea shopping centre – and helping raise cash for cancer charities.<\/p>\n
The Race For Life good luck mascots are the latest idea from Anna Gabrieli, who was inspired to start making them, with her two nieces Natalie
\nand Stephanie Evans,\u00a0 after her sister Susan died from cancer.<\/p>\n
Anna\u2019s previously made a host of the angels to help Swansea\u00a0 to their Wembley victory\u00a0 – with player Angel Rangel also crediting them for ending his eight-month goal drought.<\/p>\n
Anna, from Gendros, has already raised \u00a340,000 for cancer charities, and has been selling her latest creations in Swansea\u2019s Quadrant Shopping Centre.<\/p>\n
The 56-year-old former South Wales Police civilian support worker can\u2019t believe how popular her designs have become with shoppers at the Quadrant Centre. They\u2019re available as pendants, pocket mascots, anklets, ear-rings, necklaces and even handbag charms or book marks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought everybody in Swansea had got one but now they seem to want the full set,\u201d laughed Anna. \u201cWe did them in black and white as the Swan Angels, which raised \u00a35,000 alone but the latest ones are pink, for Race For Life. They are very pretty with canna lily shaped flowers. We\u2019re hoping to raise around \u00a33,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be doing the race with Natalie, but we will also have a stall at the event, on Sunday. My friends will look after the stall while Natalie and I are taking part in the race \u2013 though we will be walking, not running.<\/p>\n
The money from the pink Race for Life angels will go towards Cancer Research, though Anna\u2019s creations usually raise money for the Lymphoma Leukaemia Myeloma Fund,\u00a0 plus a refurbished stem cell unit at Singleton Hospital’s ward 11 and\u00a0 one-off items needed by the unit or\u00a0 T\u0177 Olwen Hospice at Morriston Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cCancer is cancer, anything that helps somebody is important,\u201d said Anna.<\/p>\n
Susan, who worked as a clerical officer for the Land Registry, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, in 2009, only a few days after their father had died, explained Anna.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stayed with my sister every day.\u00a0 My friends became concerned for my welfare and urged me to join a life-long learning course in jewellery making and my sister also encouraged me to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started making jewellery and pretty soon friends were buying them.\u00a0 Both Sue and I became involved and we would take them into Ward 11 at Singleton Hospital and the patients and nurses would buy them.\u00a0 I asked people to give me their broken jewellery and I would recycle the beads into other jewellery.\u201d<\/p>\n
After spotting a crystal angel Anna decided to make her own version using beads, and has now sold thousands of them, asking for a \u00a33 donation. She\u2019s now selling pink and blue versions at babywear shops, and has got more link-ups with celebrities in the pipeline, so she can keep on raising cash for cancer charities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I lost my sister everything seemed to go to pot, making these angels really seemed to help,\u201d said Anna.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not ready yet to stop making the angels – they have brought me, and my nieces, a lot of comfort. Making the Angels has brought me so much comfort.\u00a0 I feel when I’m making them it’s helping me keep Susan’s memory alive.”<\/p>\n
Helping her make the glass angels is Natalie, 21, who works for the DWP, plus Stephanie, 15, who has just completed her GCSEs. Also lending a hand are Anna\u2019s friends Jeanette and Tegwyth Curtis \u2013 the pair are married to two brothers who have both fought cancer.<\/p>\n
Jeannette\u2019s husband Geoff had prostate cancer, while Tegwyth\u2019s husband Bev had Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma. \u00a0Another helper is Janeda Thomas, whose mother is currently undergoing treatment at Singleton Hospital\u2019s Haematology Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a stall in the Quadrant Centre and we made \u00a3900 in just two days \u2013 people were so keen to get them and so generous,\u201d added Anna.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt used to be mostly women who bought them but since we brought out the Swan Angels men have started buying as well, to keep in their pocket as a good luck mascot when they go to a football game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ian Kirkpatrick, Manager of the Quadrant Shopping Centre, said: \u201cAnna\u2019s story is very touching and the work she is doing for charity is
\nfantastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re delighted her Angels are here in the Quadrant and they\u2019re certainly pretty in pink.\u201d<\/p>\n