Anna Jebson has made thousands of ribbon bows A Hornsea florist has changed the fortunes of a number of struggling charities, and brightened up the area around the seaside town at the same time, during the coronavirus crisis.

Anna Jebson has raised more than £15,000 to support good causes hit by the pandemic, all by making pretty bows out of florist ribbon.

Anna, proprietor of Petals, Pets and Paws , in New Road, said she never dreamt the response to her bow-making would be so overwhelming.

“I started during the March lockdown,” said Anna, who has followed on from her mum in the flower business.

“I took some ribbon home when everyone was doing rainbows and drawings on their houses. I make bows for my bouquets and I thought I’d make one and stick it on my door.

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“I thought, that looks really good, and then I thought I might be able to make some money for the NHS.”

Anna ended up raising £10,600 from making bows – “I really don’t know how many there were, but it was thousands” – with people being asked to give a minimum donation of £2 per bow as a show of support for the NHS.

“We had some generous people who donated £50, and a few companies gave us a couple of hundred pounds,” said Anna, who was helped in the initiative by colleague Amanda Spencer.

The colourful bows began springing up in and around Hornsea, with people attaching them to doors, gateposts and trees.

“A lady then messaged me about the Royal British Legion and its struggle to sell poppies this year, and could I do some bows in the Legion colours?

“I did go one better and created some in the shape of a poppy,” said Anna, who ended up raising £2,540 for the appeal.”

More recently, after making bows in Halloween colours for people to decorate their homes, all ribbon-bow-making has been concentrated on boosting the funds for Hornsea Inshore Rescue, for which Anna’s brother, Paul, is a coxswain.Paul set about raising money for the independent lifeboat service by cycling across the country in two days – battling atrocious weather, he brought in more than £4,000 for the cause.Anna said: “If Paul could raise such an amount of money then I was determined to see if I could beat him by making bows in aid of our town’s own brilliant lifeboat and rescue service.”She collected £2,020 to donate to the service which, like many charities this year has seen its usual income streams decimated by the pandemic.Hornsea Inshore Rescue’s leading coxswain Karl Shannon, who accepted the donation from Anna, said: “We are so grateful for donations such as these which quite literally keep us afloat.“Our income is all from donations and though they have been much reduced, our call-outs are just the same, even through the lockdowns.“We have had 27 so far […]