Representative Image of a young girl selling plants at a colorful flower stall in loving memory of her Grandad (AI-generated image)
Lucy’s plant sale for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity: how an 8-year-old began selling plants in memory of her Grandad
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. 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. Over the summer of 2024, her family looked out for garden centres and people they knew who were giving plants away for free. She began with a small wooden cabinet, but within 2 months she needed something bigger. Lucy’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 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. 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. One summer, a man drove 20 miles to find her stall. The biggest surprise came at Christmas, when an anonymous donor matched her fundraising total, bringing it to about £24,652 at the time.
Because it supports work that can improve cancer care and develop treatments, she hopes the money will help people going through similar experiences and says fundraising matters. Because she could not believe how supportive her community was, lucy says reaching her first £1,000 was a huge moment.
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. Lucy told The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity that the awareness fundraising creates for the charity matters more than the amount raised. “Flowers always make people smile,” she said, explaining why she decided to grow plants from seed and sell them. Lucy says running it has been a lovely way to meet people and has helped her family cope after her Grandad died. Lucy says it felt good to do something positive that could help a family like hers. The term “retroperitoneal” refers to the area behind the abdominal lining. 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. Lucy says the gesture left her speechless and was the best Christmas present she could have asked for.
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. Her story shows how a small, local initiative can grow into meaningful support for people affected by cancer. In 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. 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. A local builder who was a friend of her Grandad built her a wooden stall, which is now filled with seasonal plants. The stall has also become a shared hobby. They often spend Saturday afternoons repotting, restocking and looking for new seeds to plant. The stall has taught her a lot about plants, too. 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. She wanted to support the hospital’s charity in recognition of the care her Grandad received. 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. Smaller acts of kindness have stayed with her, too. 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. 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.
Her mum and her nanny, who were not previously interested in gardening, can now name lots of plants.