Feed NHS Archives - Helen McCrory

John Vincent, CEO of Leon Restaurants, Reflects On Helen McCrory

On April 18, 2021April 19, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

FeedNHS Partners

by John Vincent, Chief Executive of LEON | The Telegraph | April 18, 2021

In the last year, Helen McCrory became a close colleague as we worked alongside her, her husband, Damian Lewis, and actor Matt Lucas on the #FeedNHS campaign. At the height of the first lockdown we spoke nearly every day and served over a million meals to NHS workers on the frontline.

On Friday afternoon, I was in my office when I heard the news.

My immediate thought was, no, they’ve got that wrong. People must have confused her with someone else. Just the day before, I had been writing about Helen, Damian and Matt, for Letters From Lockdown, a compilation of notes to two children about people’s lives in the past year. How could it be that she had passed away? I was shocked.

I didn’t know Helen was ill. I don’t know how long she was receiving treatment, nor what type of cancer she had. Part of me wondered if I should have known, if other people knew and I didn’t. Was there something I missed?

Damian Lewis Feed NHS Print Media Tributes

‘In the last 12 months of her life, Helen McCrory used her power to help those who help us

On April 17, 2021April 20, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

In her final year, living with an illness she kept private, McCrory used her remaining energy to give back

by Guy Kelly | April 17, 2021 | The Telegraph

Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis launched a project to provide NHS workers on the frontline with hot meals. Lewis had just halted production on Billions and flown back from New York for lockdown; McCrory had paused filming the sixth series of Peaky Blinders. Parents to two children, they could have been excused a rest. Instead the couple’s campaign #FeedNHS raised more than £1m.

When Lewis announced that his wife of 14 years had died, aged 52, “after an heroic battle with cancer”, that campaign took on an added poignancy: in her final year, living with an illness she kept private, McCrory used her remaining energy to give back.

I interviewed McCrory and Lewis about #FeedNHS exactly a year ago. They were in lockdown in Sudbury, Suffolk, with their children, Manon, 14, and Gulliver, 12, and sounded less like television’s most eminent couple and more like professional fundraisers.

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Charity Feed NHS Print Media Tributes

Helen McCrory: a towering, irreplaceable figure of stage and screen

On April 16, 2021May 19, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory had star quality

by The Newzly Desk |April 16, 2021 | The Newzly

Helen McCrory: a towering, irreplaceable figure of stage and screen

Helen McCrory’s final stage performance now stands as a monument to a towering, irreplaceable figure of stage and screen. In 2016, as Hester Collyer in The Deep Blue Sea, she turned Terence Rattigan’s heroine into a woman who is simply too big for the confining 1950s world she has been born into. The performance was a gift; she electrified every inch of the National Theatre’s stage.

Awards Charity Damian Lewis Feed NHS Personal and Family Life

PRWeek UK Awards Winners 2020: FeedNHS

On October 28, 2020April 28, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Best Proactive Communications During the Coronavirus Crisis

by PRWeek UK Staff | PR Week | October 28, 2020

Nominated: Best Ethical or Good Cause Initiative During the Coronavirus Crisis
Nominated and Won: Best Proactive Communications During the Coronavirus Crisis

Judge’s comment:
Brilliant campaign, well executed with passion.

And the winner is, FeedNHS! This campaign aimed to raise £1m to get hot, healthy meals to frontline NHS staff during the coronavirus crisis, as many struggled to get them amid lockdown closures. It was set up by Leon Restaurants co-founder and chief executive John Vincent, actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory, and actor and comedian Matt Lucas.

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Charity Damian Lewis Feed NHS Personal and Family Life

FeedNHS Expands Fundraising Efforts

On May 16, 2020April 28, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Rolling Out the Nationwide Campaign

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 16, 2020

FeedNHS is expanding its fundraising efforts from £1M to £2M. So far, £1,239,800 (*updated June 12) has been raised of the £2,000,000 target (61%). Just launched on March 27, it took the coalition only 10 days to raise the first £1M. And now they want to do it again in order to expand nationwide.

For more information, visit their FeedNHS website here and to donate, please visit the JustGiving campaign here. Here is a recent story Damian and Helen shared online:

“Hi, we’ve been raising as much money as we can to help feed NHS workers one healthy meal each day. We started in the hardest hit London hospitals and with the help of our coalition partners we’ve now taken it nationwide.

We had a target to raise 1 million pounds for our scheme and thanks to the public’s overwhelming generosity we’ve raised it. Thank you! But as more hospitals have heard about what we’re doing it’s become clear that we mustn’t stop. So our aim now is to raise 2 million (in total ) which will enable us to feed even more hospital workers across the nation. So if you can, and we know not everyone can, please donate. With you, we know we can make up the difference.

We’re Damian and Helen and like all the best things in life, this started with a chat to a friend.”

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