Nearly 400,000 sunflowers donated by Shropshire Petal Fields to cancer charity to power fundraising campaign
Hundreds of thousands of Shropshire-grown sunflowers have been donated to the county's primary cancer charity in support of its new £5 million fundraising campaign.
This year Lingen Davies Cancer Support launched its largest appeal to date - a £5 million 'Sunflower Appeal' to transform cancer services at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
Funds will be used to develop a new cancer centre at the hospital, hoped to be in place by 2029. The centre will offer up to 30 chemotherapy bays as well as outpatient clinics, a specialist Urology Investigations Unit and a Lung Diagnostic Centre.
In support of the appeal, the charity was recently invited to collect as many sunflowers as required from Shropshire Petal Fields - an event run near Newport in collaboration between Shropshire Petals and Shropshire Festivals.
The Shropshire Petal Fields event, launched in 2023, sees a field that is usually reserved for petal confetti production transformed into a visitor attraction while the flowers are in bloom. Visitors can explore the field brimming with fresh delphiniums, cornflowers, sunflowers, and other wildflowers.
Almost 400,000 sunflowers have been donated to Lingen Davies by Shropshire Petal Fields. The charity said they will be dried in preparation for upcoming events and for horticultural activities later this year.
Ashley Evers-Swindell from Shropshire Petals said: "We were so pleased to welcome Lingen Davies to our flower field as part of their wonderful Sunflower Appeal. It’s a small gesture from us, but one we hope brings a little sunshine to the incredible patients, families, and supporters they work with every day.
"We’re proud to support such an important Shropshire charity doing vital work in our community."
The collaboration was coordinated by Dave Reynolds, a passionate supporter of Lingen Davies. Dave is preparing to run the London Marathon next year, having pledged to raise more than £2,000 for the charity that supported his father-in-law at the Lingen Davies Cancer Centre at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Learn more and donate to Dave's fundraiser here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/run4lingen2026.
To support his marathon fundraising efforts, Dave has sold bunches of the sunflowers collected at Shropshire Petal Fields to his colleagues at Telford-based business Reconomy.
"We were overjoyed by this unique offer following the recent launch of our Sunflower Appeal," said Lingen Davies fundraiser Jonathan Wood.
"Most of the flowers we’ve collected will be dried in preparation for some upcoming events and others have already been earmarked for the next round of Horticultural Activities - part of our Wellbeing Programme - in September."
The horticultural activity sessions, run by Bloomin’ Lovely, are part of Lingen Davies' £100,000 wellbeing programme. This includes a range of funded activities and workshops to support those in the region living with and beyond cancer.
Shropshire Festivals 'director of fun' Beth Heath added: "It was lovely to welcome our friends at Lingen Davies Cancer Support. They do incredible work supporting the people of Shropshire, Telford, and Mid-Wales as they deal with the impact of cancer on their lives.
"Their Sunflower Appeal is bold and ambitious, and we wish them the very best in hitting that target as soon as possible to boost their life-changing support."
