FOR Becky Sparkes-Owen every day is about helping others.

Half of her closest relatives suffer from varying conditions, including her deaf eight-year-old son, and her mother who is recovering from a brain tumour.

Through caring for them she has discovered she wants to turn her passion for crafts into a rehabilitation project, and is now looking for support to get it off the ground.

The 30-year-old runs her own timber business the family home in Winchester, where three generations live together under one roof.

The 11-strong household have all shown an interest in Becky’s work, where she often spends hours turning an old piece of wood into something beautiful.

“It would be nice to give something back to someone,” she said.

“The more help I can get the better. I’m doing this because I have always been the type of person to want to help other people.”

The scheme, which the mother-of-three wants to call Timber Tops, would encourage adults who are unwell or recovering from an illness to do woodwork, needlecraft, knitting and baking, as a way to keep active.

Her mother, Mary Sparkes, suffered a brain tumour last February and had an operation to remove it in April. She said ever since she felt hopeless, but in working with Becky in the shed at their Alresford road home she realised she could get back to normal life.

“Up until last year I would always be active, out and about,” she said.

“It put me in isolation because I lost my driving license. I would sit out with her in my rocking chair like a little old lady!

“I had always had a life of doing things I felt absolutely useless and there were a couple of times I said ‘what good am I?’ At first you think you will never be able to do anything again.”

Hampshire Chronicle:

The 53-year-old said she realised all was not lost last summer, after attending a craft fare with her daughter in Eastleigh.

“You start to realise you don’t have three heads and you can do something. I’m incredibly proud of her anyway but this is the first time in a long time I have seen her get her teeth into something, and she wants to help others which is brilliant.”

Becky said seeing Mary find her way again inspired her to start the new venture.

“Seeing her do something and enjoying it, I thought there’s bound to be other people out there that are similar. It’s giving her something interesting to do,” she said.

Timber Tops would be aimed at people aged 16 and over, but Becky also has experience of working with children.

Her son, Rhys, had meningitis which left him deaf, and her three-year-old daughter Grace suffers from Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome and is in the early stages of Glaucoma.

Although primarily an eye disorder, which means the youngster will lose most of her sight by the age of 20, it also affects the development of walking and talking.

Together with their five-year-old sister Daisy and dad Mike, 36, they live with Becky’s parents, Mary and Chris, grandmother Elizabeth, 84, who has dementia and also enjoys the craft work, sister Amy, and her daughter Clara, four.

After Amy became a mother she suffered from post-natal depression and anxiety. Now out the other side she said she owes her recovery to Becky, who taught her basic skills which would distract her from panic attacks.

“I got to the point where I wasn’t going out the house, even in the car,” she said.

“Becky would go out and start something with the woodwork and I would watch her. If I started to feel like I would have a panic attack I would go out in to the shed and help her and it would take my mind of it.”

Amy said her sister’s attitude and ability would make the charity a success. “She has got the positive mind that it needs, she helps you overcome it and do something successful.”

Now Amy says she can leave the house and has found ways of controlling her panic attacks.

“It’s helped a lot because I can do stuff outside with my daughter now because it takes your mind of your worries.

“She is brilliant, she’ll turn her hand to anything.” The charity is in the early stages and Becky says she needs to find a venue and support from other organisations where possible to get the ball rolling.

“Any help I can get from anybody, I will be absolutely grateful,” she said.

  • If you think you can help email Becky on bex_sparkes@hotmail.co.uk.