Daughter of late Sunderland supermarket boss bags up donations as she channels her grief

Gem Carrick and her family were devastated by the loss of her father David Carrick, aged 66, in June 2017.

David, of Barnes, was a company director of Carrick’s supermarket and had previously had heart surgery, but was active and would walk miles each day from his home to Sunderland’s seafront and back.

As the year began, housing manager Gem, 42, from Moorside, decided to launch a challenge to help keep busy and boost the stocks of British Heart Foundation shops.

Now she is just a few bags away from filling the 100 she planned to gift to the charity and hopes others will follow her lead to support its work.

Gem said: “He had had heart surgery before, including stents and had a pig’s valve put in, but he was always bouncing back and the day before he had been up on the roof fixing something and he would walk seven miles a day.

“In the first year after he had died and I didn’t feel I was in the right place to do something, but I wanted to keep him in my mind and know he wasn’t forgotten.

“I just decided that to remember my dad, I would help the British Heart Foundation, so I got 100 charity bags at the end of last year and started filing them in January with good stuff.

“It started to help me and I knew it would help other people.

“I found it gave me more and more motivation to declutter and it means someone else can get some use out of it.

“Also, people have been really kind about it and I’ve got three more bags to do and I usually taken them along to the shop in Fawcett Street, where they’re always so lovely.

“My message is really to think of other people and do your bit, but it’s been amazing, it’s really helped me after channel my grief, feel a bit more positive and I feel more closer to my dad.”