'A Heart of Gold' Collaboration

UPDATE: Our crowdfunder has now closed but we managed to raise just over £1500 for the British Heart Foundation through the generous support of 92 supporters!

Read on to learn more about the project…

Did you know? 

‘Women are twice as likely to die from coronary heart disease, the main cause of a heart attack, than of breast cancer in the UK.’ – British Heart Foundation.

Which is why in honour of this year’s ‘Heart Month’, Kerrie (founder of the Gold Hearted Club) and I are launching a heart-led creative collaboration which not only raises awareness of this statistic, but also encourages women to be risk aware and take better care of their hearts.

The project, which is being run as a crowdfunder, will also donate just over £5000 to the British Heart Foundation, which will not only help the charity fund vital research, but continue its fight against heart disease.

The story behind ‘A Heart of Gold’ jewellery collaboration for charity

How it all began 

The idea behind our collaboration came about when we met at a maker’s market in April 2022. 

Kerrie fell in love with one of my Lovelock bracelets which features a small, gold hearted padlock. We got talking about Kerrie’s love for gold hearts, which stems from her experience of living with congenital heart disease, and is the very reason behind her inspiring venture, the Gold Hearted Club.

I was really moved by Kerrie’s incredible story, and as creative souls with a shared passion for design and storytelling, we formed an instant connection and the seed for a collaboration was planted.

Our Gold Hearted Club x Narratorium Logo

The idea

The idea and goal behind our collaboration was to design a collection of jewellery that would spark a conversation and raise awareness of heart disease in women, as well as raise vital funds for charity.

The motivation behind our idea was not only driven by Kerrie’s personal experience of living with congenital heart disease, but also the lack of awareness of heart disease in women, and the opinion that heart disease is often considered a ‘man’s disease’.

With this in mind, the long-term goal of our collaboration will focus on exploring more ways in which to reach more women and educate them on how to keep their heart healthy, as well as the potential symptoms to look out for.

Kerrie’s story

Kerrie was born in 1982 with congenital heart disease (CHD) and has had seven open heart surgeries to date. In May 2021 she also fell gravely ill with sepsis caused by infective endocarditis. Her chances of survival were slim, but thankfully she got through several heart surgeries, as well as being placed in a medically induced coma for 20 days.

It was this life-changing experience that led her to create the Gold Hearted Club, a platform she successfully uses to raise awareness of congenital heart disease and connect with others living with a similar diagnosis. It also enables her to raise money for the British Heart Foundation, which directly helped to save her life through their groundbreaking research. 

Kerrie knows that she will need to have heart surgery again, but her hope is that one day, there will be a cure. She is really passionate about fundraising for more important research to prevent, as well as treat, CHD, so that she and others living with a similar diagnosis can continue to lead a full life. 

‘Almost 1 in 100 babies in the UK are born with congenital heart disease.’ - NHS.

‘No two heart defects are exactly the same. So what’s successful in treating one person may not work as well for another person.’ - British Heart Foundation.

My Story

As a fellow creative and jeweller passionate about storytelling, I was keen to collaborate with Kerrie so that I could help her to tell her incredible story and support her cause.

At Narratorium I love designing unique, contemporary, handmade jewellery inspired by a specific narrative or meaning. Which is why finding a way to share Kerrie’s story was the perfect project.

I also loved the idea of creating a charitable piece to raise money for the British Heart Foundation, as I have also been affected by the impacts of heart disease when I lost my father very suddenly and unexpectedly to an aortic dissection in 2020. 

OUR Debut Concept - A Heart of Gold Necklace

To kick off our collaboration and for this crowdfunding project, we are proposing to make one hundred, one of a kind, completely unique, gold heart necklaces.

Our unique ‘Heart of Gold’ Necklaces

Each heart will be individually sculpted/created by hand and will be completely unique with its own very subtle differences. Each one perfectly imperfect and symbolic of the many different precious hearts that have been shaped in different ways by heart disease.

We hope that these pieces will be worn to empower those already affected by heart disease or by those simply connected to and passionate about the cause, who would like to help raise awareness of heart disease in women and ways to prevent it.

To achieve this, we hope the unusual organic nature of the heart charm, sitting on a necklace in a very visible position on the chest, will spark all-important conversations about heart disease and encourage more women to take their heart health more seriously.

We have also created a bespoke kit option to ‘make your own heart of gold’, whereby you can create your very own, completely unique heart necklace.

And, most importantly 20% of each sale will be donated to the British Heart Foundation so that it can continue to make important advances in heart disease.

‘Make your own’ Heart of Gold Necklace Kit

The goal

With the help of the crowdfunding community and our potential backers, we hope to learn that there is support for their project so that we can bring our unique jewellery concept to market and continue raising awareness as well as ongoing funds for the British Heart Foundation.

If we hit our crowdfunding target of £35,000 we will be able to donate just over £5000 to the British Heart Foundation from this project - and we would love it if you could help us get there! If we don't quite make our target, we will still be donating 20% of the proceeds to the charity as we have chosen to run a 'keep what you raise' campaign.

With the remaining funds we also want to continue exploring a wider collection of jewellery and look at other ways in which we can continue to educate and raise awareness of heart disease in women as we have lots of wonderful ideas. The money will go towards design time, prototyping and the development of additional pieces such as earrings, rings and bracelets, so that we can appeal to and reach an even wider audience.

You can still view the campaign and all of the comments from our supporters on our crowdfunder page www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/gold-hearted-club-x-narratorium

We are hoping to continue retailing the necklaces as we had a lot of support, so please do drop us a DM if you’re interested in buying one.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x