Stephen and Helen Sheldon, who farm at Sugar Lane Farm in Adlington, and their friends Chris and Carolyn Thompson, who consider themselves hobby farmers from Kerridge, started to name their sheep as a bit of fun to raise money for the Prostate Cancer UK charity (PCUK).
Chris was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in December 2012 at the age of 53. Having been helped enormously by the charity, he applied to become a volunteer for the charity (PCUK) and continues to be a big supporter.
Helen Sheldon explained: “One day a friend of ours said that he wanted to name a sheep and that he would donate some cash to PCUK in memory of a loved one, and there the idea was born.
“We were well into the lambing season by this point but we decided to communicate the idea out via social media to see what came of it. We very quickly became inundated with requests and the local fields were soon awash with multi coloured named sheep.”
Chris Thompson added: “We had lambs named after footballer Sergio Aguero, sheep named after children and grandchildren, sheep named in memory of loved ones and lot’s named in memory of family members who had been through the cancer journey. We even had one named Grumpy after a friend’s husband! All in all, we received fantastic support and managed to raise the best part of £1,500.”
This year, due to popular demand, the Sheldon and Thompson families are running the event again and have set a fundraising target of £2,000.
With 275 ewes and a potential 450 lambs due, the target is extremely achievable.
Helen Sheldon added: “Once the lamb is born we have a list of names put forward to people who have donated. As soon as a lamb is named, we take a photo and put it onto Facebook for our supporters to see.”
Get involved
If you’d like to support this fundraising initiative you can visit:
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Namethelamb
Or, search ‘Name the Lamb in aid of Prostate cancer UK’ on Facebook.