Meet Lucy, who started selling plants at 8 in memory of her grandfather and raised more than £26,000 for a cancer charity

Lucy was 8 when she started selling plants in memory of her Grandad, Derek Easton, who died in June 2024 after 6 years of treatment at The Royal Marsden. She wanted to thank the hospital and help other families facing cancer. Lucy began with a small wooden cabinet, plants donated by people who knew her Grandad and seeds she grew herself. In a March 2026 story titled “Lucy’s inspiring plant sale: over £24,000 raised and growing”, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity described how her fundraising had grown since she started selling plants in 2024. An anonymous donor matched her fundraising total at Christmas, bringing it to about £24,652 at that time. As of October 21, 2026, her JustGiving page showed £26,877.46 raised, plus £540 in Gift Aid, from 83 donations. The total included £14,302.46 in online donations and £12,575 raised offline, including the anonymous matched gift. Lucy told The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity that the awareness fundraising creates for the charity matters more than the amount raised. Her story shows how a small, local initiative can grow into meaningful support for people affected by cancer.Lucy’s plant sale for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity: how an 8-year-old began selling plants in memory of her GrandadIn her account for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, Lucy explained that her idea grew out of a simple wish to do something that would make people happy. “Flowers always make people smile,” she said, explaining why she decided to grow plants from seed and sell them. Over the summer of 2024, her family looked out for garden centres and people they knew who were giving plants away for free. Her mum started a Facebook page to support her, and soon people who knew her Grandad began turning up with pots and bags of plants. Within a few weeks, Lucy had enough stock to sell.She began with a small wooden cabinet, but within 2 months she needed something bigger. A local builder who was a friend of her Grandad built her a wooden stall, which is now filled with seasonal plants. Lucy says running it has been a lovely way to meet people and has helped her family cope after her Grandad died. The stall has also become a shared hobby. Her mum and her nanny, who were not previously interested in gardening, can now name lots of plants. They often spend Saturday afternoons repotting, restocking and looking for new seeds to plant. Lucy says it felt good to do something positive that could help a family like hers. The stall has taught her a lot about plants, too.Retroperitoneal liposarcoma and specialist sarcoma care: why Lucy’s Grandad’s 6 years of treatment mattered to herLucy’s Grandad, Derek Easton, died in June 2024 from retroperitoneal liposarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer, after 6 years of treatment at The Royal Marsden. The term “retroperitoneal” refers to the area behind the abdominal lining. The review Targetable Pathways in the Treatment of Retroperitoneal Liposarcoma estimates that soft tissue sarcomas account for about 1% of adult malignancies and that retroperitoneal sarcomas make up about 20% of soft tissue sarcomas. The UK guidelines for the management of soft tissue sarcomas recommend that people with suspected soft tissue sarcoma be referred to a specialist regional service and managed by a specialist team.Lucy told The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity that the specialists at the hospital gave her Grandad nearly 6 extra years with his family, which she described as priceless. She wanted to support the hospital’s charity in recognition of the care her Grandad received. She hopes the money will help people going through similar experiences and says fundraising matters because it supports work that can improve cancer care and develop treatments. Lucy also wants more people to know that The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity supports the hospital’s work for people with cancer, rather than being limited to those who live in London. Some people she met had never heard of the charity.Charity plant stall fundraising: more than £25,000 raised, free compost, a 20-mile drive and a Christmas gift from a strangerLucy says reaching her first £1,000 was a huge moment because she could not believe how supportive her community was. Smaller acts of kindness have stayed with her, too. At a local garden centre where she went to buy compost, the owner recognised her from social media and told her it was free that day. One summer, a man drove 20 miles to find her stall. He did not come to buy anything. Instead, he brought a plant that his sister had cared for over many years. His sister had died of cancer, and he wanted to thank Lucy for what she was doing.The biggest surprise came at Christmas, when an anonymous donor matched her fundraising total, bringing it to about £24,652 at the time. Lucy says the gesture left her speechless and was the best Christmas present she could have asked for. As of October 21, 2026, her JustGiving page showed £26,877.46 raised, plus £540 in Gift Aid. Lucy plans to keep going for as long as the community supports her. Her advice to anyone thinking of fundraising is that it can be hard work, but people are often keen to buy something when they know the money is going to a charity. Those who want to support her can donate through Lucy’s JustGiving page or find other fundraising ideas on The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity’s ways to fundraise page.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.