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CWLA Author Wins at Justgiving 2022!

Published on 19/10/2022

Congratulations to CWLA author Phil Heckles for winning Justgiving’s Most Creative Fundraiser Award! Phil’s fundraiser was creative indeed. He made self-confessed ‘rubbish’ drawings of people’s pets, asking only for donations in return. It started with a silly drawing of his own dog shared to social media, and now he has drawn over 11,000 pet portraits for people across the world – even as far as California and Belgium. These ‘rubbish’ drawings helped him raise over £200,000 for homeless charities Turning Tides and Street Vet!

Accepting the award on October 10 at Justgiving’s ‘Most Inspiring Night of the Year’ Phil said “…generosity has driven the fundraising, not my stupid pictures.”  This fantastic win isn’t slowing him down either. Phil is still taking commissions to raise more money!

Phil has also turned these drawings into two picture books with CWLA. The first, Rubbish Pet Portraits, is a hilarious collection of his ‘extremely realistic’ drawings, but a fair warning – the book may not be suitable for anyone who actually likes animals or has the ability to see. His second and most recent is Who’s a Clever Boy Then?, which was released in July, and instantly became an Amazon Bestseller!

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