Happiful Hero: Pockets of Happiness For the Local Community
updated on Jul 12, 2018
Rebekah Moody has nominated her friend Katie Britcliffe, who worked through grief to create a network of happiness
Things haven’t always been easy for Katie. A few years ago, her mum, Annie, was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and, after a few short months, she passed away. It was an unbelievably tough period for Katie, not only with facing the fact that her mum would not be with her for much longer, but also in taking an active role in her care.
Rebekah tells us that on the hardest days, Katie and Annie always tried to find small things that happened each day that were worth celebrating. Annie’s philosophy was that no matter how hard the day, there was always a pocket of happiness to be found.
Katie Britcliffe
“The reason I am nominating her is that, following a year from hell, she turned an experience that would have broken many people into a positive, inspiring and uplifting initiative, that has changed many people’s lives for the better,” says Rebekah.
Katie began making beautiful homemade keyrings with a “happy” tag attached to them, and hiding them around Surrey. Each keyring had a message, a number and a web address, and people could keep or re-hide their keyring, with the idea being that each keyring brought a small pocket of happiness to someone’s day, and they could either keep it, or share it again.
She encouraged people to log their keyrings as they were hidden and found on the Pockets of Happiness website. Soon after, the idea took off and gained hundreds of followers online.
Katie now sells the keyrings nationally, does gift packs and birthday cards, and gives 10% of all profits to MND. She has turned it into a small business with the aim of keeping it going as a long-term endeavour, in loving memory of her mum.
“Katie deserves to be recognised as an unsung hero,” says Rebekah, “for her stoicism, determination and drive to turn a tragedy into daily pockets of happiness that she shares with people across the world.”
Do you know an unsung hero? Send your nominations to [email protected]
