They never fail to generate ooh’s and ahh’s of appreciation, they are all unique and after twenty-four years the popularity of a hand-made knitted Trinity chick is yet to wane.

Royal Trinity Hospice’s annual Easter Chick Campaign is back with several thousand knitted chicks ready to take flight from the hospice into the homes of people across London.

The campaign first started at the end of the 1990’s, with an estimated 65,000 chicks made so far. Each chick is stuffed with a chocolate egg before being sold to raise money for the hospice.

The collective amount raised by the chicks so far totals over £120,000 with the total set to rise this year with 2,000 chicks ready to be sold.

The chicks are individually knitted by supporters of the hospice, many of whom have long standing personal connections to the hospice. Retired Textile Teacher Marilyn, from Putney, has knitted chicks for the campaign over many years, after the hospice provided end of life care to her sister Maureen in 2009.

Marilyn has so far knitted 1,500 chicks and has set herself the goal of knitting a chick a day over the last twelve months.

“I find it easy to do and can knit and watch TV at the same time, and tend to do batches of ten using two different colours of wool. People are really kind, donating wool to help me along, otherwise I find what I need in my local charity shop. I can have the 6 o’clock news on and have one chick knitted and done by the time the weather comes on.”

 The old proverb is apt here - many hands making very light work of several thousand chicks

Thankful not only for the care given to her sister, it has been through Trinity that Marilyn has forged new friendships, through other volunteers and attending the egg stuffing days with other knitters.  

2,000 knitted chicks are now ready to be sold in this year’s campaign, after they were all stuffed with a Cadbury’s Crème egg in February, with the hospice’s Chief Executive Emily Carter lending the volunteers a hand too, before they were boxed up ready for delivery to local schools.

Eight schools in south west London are supporting this year’s campaign selling the chicks in their reception areas, much to the excitement of the children who look forward to their annual arrival.

Chief Executive Emily Carter enjoying helping to pick, stuff and pack alongside volunteer Deborah 

This year, children who buy a chick will have the option to consider recycling it by returning it to Trinity to be re-stuffed and resold in 2024.

People wanting to buy a knitted chick can call into the reception of Trinity and buy their own for £2 each, with rabbits available this year too.