Sheila’s Daisy jewellery collections have been supporting local and national charities and good causes since 2014, and this year we've reached the massive overall total of over £100,000 in donations! This amazing result is down to all our fantastic customers and supporters over the years, who through their purchases, enable us to support fantastic charities such as the Orkney Charitable Trust and Pancreatic Cancer Action Scotland.

The idea of creating a charitable collection first sparked in 2014 when Sheila wanted to support one of her former employees, Emily Findlay. Emily was diagnosed with neuroblastoma aged 14, a rare type of cancer that mostly affects babies and young children. Following two and half years of operations and treatment, Emily was stable for 18 months and began working at Sheila Fleet Jewellery, until she sadly relapsed in January 2014. 

Emily: “Sheila called and told me she wanted the range to be based around a flower and asked me what my favourite flower was. At the time, I was away for surgery and I have to admit I was on quite a lot of strong pain killers when I shouted out 'daisies!', and looking back I'm not sure if it even was, but ever since that day it has been my favourite.”
Sheila: “Emily's choice was rather special to me as years before, I had chosen daisies for my wedding day. I made my wedding dress, cape and hat with daisy lace, along with my bouquet of fresh daisies. Sadly, I lost my husband Rick to Pancreatic Cancer in 2013. Rick was a lover of photography and one of his most iconic photographs was a picture of daisies taken at dawn below our home and workshop (see above photo). It was this photo I used to help me design Emily’s daisies—it’s a tribute to Rick's life and memory too.”

Rick and Sheila on their wedding day

Emily: "When I returned home from that surgery, we went straight to Sheila’s studio to look over designs. Sheila is one of the most talented, bubbly people I know and I will remember that morning forever. We went over what the whole range would look like, had a coffee and were probably there for hours!"

Sheila developed a collection called ‘Daisies for Emily’, and within the first month of being launched, it had already raised over £4,000 towards Emily’s treatment. For every sale from the 'Daisies for Emily' collection, a contribution was made to the Orkney Charitable Trust to help support Emily and her family.

Emily and Sheila designing the collection

Emily: “The money raised from 'Daisies for Emily' ensured that my family didn’t have to worry so much about the cost associated with my illness. I don’t think many people think of the financial impact on families with ill children who have to travel back and forth to hospital, or families who have to live apart and essentially have two sets of bills. Parents shouldn’t have to worry about money when their child is fighting for their life.”

With such a great response, Sheila decided to developed the collection further, introducing her Coloured Daisies and Diamond Daisies collections.

Emily wearing the Coloured Daisies in Ocean enamel in 2014

Emily: “One of the most heart-warming things about ‘Daisies for Emily’ was seeing so many young girls in Orkney wearing the pieces. I would come home from treatment for a week and visit our local restaurants and shops, nearly every girl I saw had a daisy. The support from Orkney was incredible and I'm so grateful to be from such an amazing community.”

Two years later Emily was in the best health of her life after she and her family had been through some very difficult times. Emily’s fund is reserved for her should she ever need further treatment.

Emily: “I'm so incredibly happy that ‘Daisies for Emily’ is now ‘Daisies at Dawn’ and is supporting more fantastic charities. I will be truly forever grateful to Sheila and the Fleet family.”

After Emily's support fund ended in May 2018, Sheila Fleet Jewellery continued to work with the Orkney Charitable Trust from June 2018 to December 2019, supporting many other campaigns such as ‘Every Child should be Warm in Bed’, where we were able to donate and deliver 50 warm bedding bundles thanks to Daisy purchases.

Becky wearing the Daisies at Dawn collection

From January 2020 to December 2021, Sheila Fleet Jewellery worked with and supported Pancreatic Cancer Action Scotland and now in 2022 are supporting MS Society Orkney.

We hope to continue to support many amazing charities and causes locally and nationally through donations from every purchase within the Daisies at Dawn, Coloured Daisies and Diamond Daisies collections.