Nine-year-old Marli Rubin.
Marli, from Manchester, decided to fundraise in tribute to her granddad (Poppa) Graham Rubin, who died earlier this year from pancreatic cancer aged 70.
Graham was still happily working, heading up the successful clothing and homeware catalogue business Chums that he founded nearly forty years ago, when he was diagnosed in 2020. His sons Josh and Adam (Marli’s dad) now run the family business.
“Poppa was lovely,” says Marli. “I would always go on walks with him and help him doing the gardening at his house and in our garden too when he visited us with Nanoo (Marli’s grandma). He was really funny and made us laugh.”
Marli decided to fundraise and hit upon the keyring idea. She explains: “A boy in my class at school shrank a crisp packet in the oven and made it into a keyring and I thought I could do that to sell at Poppa’s work, because they eat a lot of crisps there.”
Staff at Chums – many of whom had worked with Graham for many years – rallied round to help Marli’s fundraiser, collecting empty crisp packets for her to take home and shrink in the oven with mum, Steph. Marli then set up a stall at the Chums offices with younger brother Rocco (6) and sister Noa (7), and the three shopkeepers sold the keyrings back to the very people who had contributed the materials!
“We made 50 keyrings altogether and sold them for £1, but everyone was really nice and paid more than that for them, and other people didn’t take a keyring but gave us some money anyway,” Marli says. “We were really happy that we made so much.”
Maggie Blanks, CEO of PCRF said: “Thank you Marli! What a clever way to raise funds in your Poppa’s memory. I’m sure he would be incredibly proud not just for fundraising to help others, but also the entrepreneurial way that you did it!”