Charlie’s Instagram fundraiser
Selling pre-loved children’s clothes
2 December 2021
Charlie Walker-Lucy’s daughter, Arabella, suffered an facial injury during her birth which left her with ptosis in one eye. This meant for the first two years of her life, Arabella’s eyelid drooped and obscured her vision. From four months old, she has been under the care of the Moorfields Eye Unit at Croydon University Hospital.
Understandably, Charlie is extremely grateful to the dedication of the staff who supported Arabella through her repair surgery.
As Arabella and her sister Seren, started to grow out of their clothes, Charlie wanted to give them a second life and decided to re-sell them. Charlie has created an Instagram account, @bella_and_ren_preloved where she sells second hand and vintage children’s clothing, from new-born to four years old with hopes to expand into toys and maternity clothing too. After everything Moorfields had done for Arabella, Charlie thought it was also an ideal way to give back- a minimum of 25% of every sale she makes is going to Moorfields Eye Charity.
Arabella after her operation at Moorfields
Becoming new parents is obviously a challenge in itself, and then we had the added worry of thinking our daughter may lose her sight or struggle with her injury her whole life. The staff at Moorfields were brilliant with us and our daughter, providing support and reassurance and consistent monitoring, even throughout the pandemic.
Charlie and her daughter Seren
As well as enabling my children’s clothes to be reused, I thought it would be a great way to raise money for charity, and Moorfields Eye Charity seemed the obvious choice for us, given everything Moorfields has done for Arabella.
Charlie Walker-Lucy, Arabella’s mum
Thank you Charlie for choosing to support Moorfields in this way. We are so pleased to see Arabella doing so well after her surgery.
