Kissy Puppy Shop Window

Special butterflies marking the life of Sophie Rolf to be sold to Bestival-goers

This in from Katie on behalf of the Hospice. Ed


In just over a week, more than 350 of the purple butterflies have been purchased from Sophie’s Shop, Newport, the Lugley Street charity store – named after the six-year-old who died of a brain tumour last year – that helps raise money to provide care for children with life-limiting illnesses.

And thanks to a partnership between Sophie’s charity KissyPuppy and the Bestival, thousands more butterflies are set to be sold in the coming weeks.

On Thursday 4th September, volunteers will be selling the butterflies to passengers using Wightlink’s Portsmouth to Fishbourne car ferry and the Hovertravel Southsea to Ryde hovercraft

Volunteers from KissyPuppy and the Earl Mountbatten Hospice will also be at the Bestival to sell the distinctive butterflies to festival goers. All those who buy a butterfly are being invited to take a selfie with the emblem and submit it to [email protected]. All entries will go into a draw to win a ticket for this year’s Bestival.

Rowing challenge
And as a warm up to the Bestival, there will be a guys versus gals rowing challenge when two classic rowing boats will cross the Solent carrying Sophie’s dad Aaron and Earl Mountbatten Hospice chief executive Jo Blackburn from Hurst Castle to Colwell Bay on Thursday 4 September.

Martin Scotcher and team rowing

Supporters of the Hospice and KissyPuppy are being asked to donate towards this event by going to the JustGiving page and for their chance to WIN tickets for Bestival 2015.

Mrs Blackburn said:

“We are delighted to be working so closely with KissyPuppy on a number of initiatives that will hopefully raise a lot of money to provide end of life care for children and young people.

“Once again we are extremely grateful to a wide range of local companies, individuals and organisations who continue to be so incredibly supportive of the hospice and KissyPuppy.”