After losing her Grandma (Mama), York student nurse Amy Mann started knitting. Now, she carries on her Grandma’s legacy, knitting blankets for other patients in end-of-life care.
Amy started Kathleen’s Legacy (KL), a volunteer group at the University, named after her grandma, Kathleen.
KL provides handmade blankets for palliative care patients (200 blankets, 500 hearts and shooting stars to be exact!), but it’s so much more than a blanket – KL gives patients something made with love.
“My Mama knitted blankets for anyone and everyone she could,” Amy told Vision.
“If you got a Mama blanket, it was made with love, especially if the person receiving it would be having a bad time.”
“Knitting kept my Mama going in lockdown – my Mum found so many squares which were intended for blankets, as well as a huge amount of wool!”
Now the baton has passed to Amy.
KL’s ethos is simple. “No one should die under a standard blue hospital blanket. I can’t imagine anything worse.”
A KL’s blanket will provide warmth and love, one last time, which can stay with the patient or can be passed onto the relatives. Because they are knitted by hand, the blankets are one of a kind and will never be used for another patient again.
“Kathleen’s Legacy is a hug in a blanket. The idea is that if you have nothing or nobody to hold your hand while you die, you are wrapped and warm in a Kathleen’s Legacy blanket.”
As well as being a granddaughter to someone who went through palliative care, as a student nurse, Amy has seen these types of situations firsthand.
“Palliative and end of life patients are two separate ends of the scale. When we speak of palliative patients, they are receiving medical care to manage their condition and symptom management. End of life could be months, weeks, days and hours before someone dies.
“Dying for a lot of people and their relatives can lead to a lot of uncertainty of what to expect and what they will see. Memories are so important and dying should, where possible, be dignified and supported correctly without causing trauma.
“I want people to feel love one last time and relatives to have a positive memory going forward about their relative.”
“When you go into a hospital you get the basic bed sheets and blanket (blue, green, yellow), could you ever imagine knowing a relative died in such a blanket and what had happened on that blanket before? It makes me cringe a little to know that these blankets hold so many secrets.”
“I want people to feel love one last time and relatives to have a positive memory going forward about their relative.”
“I have the blanket my Mama died with to this day, and sleep with it every night as it brings me comfort – knowing she took her last breath in it, but also because she absolutely loved it and the memories behind the blanket were so special even before she died.”
Regarding whether being a nurse has made Amy more passionate about her project, Amy told Vision that “to an extent, it has, with the various deaths I have seen.”
Her biggest passion, however, remains honouring her Mama’s legacy and memory.
“My passion drives from helping others experience death in a beautiful light and helping others be able to say goodbye in a peaceful and dignified way, where possible.”
Kathleen’s Legacy has also worked with Innocent smoothies and Age UK to help knit the UK’s largest bobble hat in January 2023!
“I was asked if I wanted to share my story with other crochet and knitters,” Amy told us.
“All day a large group of us helped create the bobble hat squares!”
And it didn’t end there. Once it was taken down it was split into blankets to be given to hospices, animal shelters and hospitals.
Amy isn’t stopping here! She has also been nominated for the Royal College of Nursing for ‘Student of the Year’ award.
“I [will] find out in November if I have won, but the honour has been all mine that someone took the time to nominate me!
“I have been able to talk to influential people across the world, and to the NHS about the importance of dignified dying, breaking the stigma wall down about discussing death and dying.”
If you are wanting to be a part of this amazing project you can,and you don’t even have to be able to knit or crochet to do it!
“Any students and staff wanting to get involved can join us for free on the volunteer and society page. You can donate wool or equipment, and if you are curious and want to learn, or even help stitch squares together.”
After all, “Nobody Should Die in a Blue Blanket”.