Charity of the Month - Versus Arthritis and March Knitting Challenge

We’re delighted to be supporting Versus Arthritis again as our charity of the month throughout March!

We supported Versus Arthritis in March 2021 and with the help of everyone who donated, we managed to raise an amazing £2,877.

During the month, you can round up your orders to the nearest £1 at the checkout and all money raised will be donated to Versus Arthritis, a registered charity in England and Wales (207711) and Scotland (SC041156).

We’ll again be matching all donations so whatever you donate, we’ll donate the same, doubling the total amount raised for the charity.

About Versus Arthritis:

Versus Arthritis are the UK’s leading charity dedicated to helping the 10 million people with arthritis. They believe that no one should face arthritis alone and refuse to accept arthritis insidiously stealing life from people. The charity does this by funding pioneering research, supporting people with arthritis at every stage of their journey and campaigning to raise awareness amongst government and policy makers.

To find out more about the vital work that Versus Arthritis does please visit their website here.

Versus Arthritis March Knitting Challenge:

This March you can join an amazing knitting community to help raise money for people with arthritis. Your fundraising will help to ensure that one day, no one has to tolerate the pain, fatigue and isolation of arthritis alone, whilst challenging yourself to knit every day in March.

Versus Arthritis March Knitting Challenge is a fundraising challenge which you can make your own. Simply set your own target of how much you want to knit throughout the month. You could take on one long knitting pattern to be completed by the end of March or aim to knit lots of smaller items that could be given to friends in exchange for donations. It’s up to you! If you want to crochet instead of knitting, you can do that too!

Versus Arthritus will be there with you every step of the way! No matter your target, all achievements are celebrated in their supportive challenge Facebook Group. You can find the group here. You’ll also find some great ideas there if you’re stuck for inspiration.

The challenge starts on Tuesday 1st March 2022 and ends on 31st March 2022. If you are unavailable that day don’t worry, you can choose a different day in the month to start your knitting (or crochet) challenge.

Follow the four simple steps below to join the challenge:

• Join a wonderful community of knitters in our Facebook group.
• Register your details with the charity so they can thank you at the end
• Start your Facebook fundraiser – it takes just 45 seconds.
• Set your knitting challenge, either one project, lots if items, or a set amount of time knitting each day in the month

For more information, take a look at the frequently asked questions here for everything you need to join thousands of others taking part in the March Knitting Challenge.

About Arthritis:

Arthritis and related musculoskeletal conditions affect 18.8 million people in the UK and are the single biggest cause of pain and disability in the UK.

Musculoskeletal conditions account for a fifth of all sickness absence and result in the loss of around 28.2 million working days to the UK economy each year - behind coughs/colds MSK conditions are the biggest reason that days are lost from work.

57% of people living with arthritis experience pain everyday – it has an impact on everything they do. It isn’t just older people who are affected – everyone can have arthritis, with approximately 12,000 young people living with arthritis.

For more information about Arthritis please click here.

Free Patterns

To help you on your way with the March Knitting Challenge we’re giving away 2 FREE 'PDF – Print at Home' patterns! Follow the links below to the patterns and enter code MARCHVA at checkout. DOn't forget to round-up your orders to the nearest £ when you checkout!

*Free pattern discount expires at 23:59pm on 31 March 2022.

Last month's charity:

Throughout February we helped to support WWF-UK and raised an incredible £, thanks to your checkout donations. Thank you so much to everyone who donated! We’ll also be matching your donations, bringing the total raised for the charity to £1744.48.