Hammerhead and StinkyPants are true heroes for two Channel Island charities

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It’s been a while since I have written about HammerHead and Captain StinkyPants. Over the past few months, these two superheroes have been very busy raising money for two local charities.

For those of you unaware of these intrepid adventurers, let me bring you up to speed.

I have two young sons, Harris and Lewis, our bedtime routine has been dominated by storytelling. Not content with reading the books we have at home, we began conjuring up our own stories, taking turns to create different parts. This fairly random way of discovering our collective imaginations has, over the years, led to some themes emerging. I wanted to write the stories down so we had something to look back on, but as I finessed our bedtime ramblings I decided I wanted to take this project one step further. Last year, I published my first book Meet HammerHead and Captain StinkyPants, which follows the adventures of Harris and Lewis as they are whisked off to a secret land far beyond the skies, and transformed into superheroes.

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I am in the privileged position of leading the Channel Islands Co-operative, a business that is right at the heart of Island life. We are a community retailer with more than 1,000 colleagues and 120,000 members. And each year we help dozens of charities. My children really are incredibly lucky to enjoy their world, but there are many young people across Jersey and Guernsey who have more difficult lives.

That’s why I decided to donate all the profits of the book to Variety, the Children’s Charity of Jersey and Help a Guernsey Child. Our Society sold the books in all its stores at no cost so that all the money raised could go to the charities.

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It was a real honour for me to contact the charities recently to let them know that HammerHead and StinkyPants had raised £10,000 - an unbelievable sum! I’d like to say a big ‘Stink Slam’ thank you to everyone who bought a copy of the book or attended the official book launch or bid for the original artwork.

Sandra Auckland from Variety told me that the £6,000 they have received will be used to benefit pupils at Mont a L’Abbe school and to help a young Islander with complex needs to become more mobile:

“The needs of the youngsters at Mont a L’Abbe are diverse due to the age range and the complexity of their severe, profound or multiple learning difficulties. We plan to use part of this significant donation for a school project and then the remainder for something which will specifically benefit a young Jersey girl.”

Help A Guernsey Child will receive £4,000, which Chairman, Peter Webber has said will be used to help local young people in need:

“It can be very easy to forget how disadvantaged some young people in the Island are. Help A Guernsey Child has assisted hundreds of children at times when they need it the most, and this money will allow us to help even more.”

When the time is right, I will be taking Harris and Lewis to see the difference this money has made for those less fortunate, and I hope that they will be proud of what we’ve achieved together. The last few books are still available from all Channel Islands Co-operative Society stores, priced at £9.99. Grab them while you can because as enjoyable as this has been, I am not sure if a career as a children’s author is quite for me!
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