Isla’s stones on displayintown
A DISPLAY to celebrate the #islastones campaign and raise awareness of childhood cancers is running in the town centre.
The array of painted pebbles in the Atkins Gallery is in honour of Isla Tansey, who started the campaign before she died of a spinal tumour aged just seven.
Isla began decorating small rocks and pebbles following her diagnosis with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a rare terminal cancer, as a way to have fun and to raise awareness of the condition.
The #islastones Facebook page has reached more than 73,000 members with painted stones appearing all around the UK and even worldwide.
Isla’s parents Simon and Katherine and her brother Harrison went along to open the display.
Katherine said: “It’s just amazing how #islastones has grown since it began in April. It started just as a bit of fun.
“We are definitely going to keep this going and look at how we can support research into DIPG. “Isla is still keeping us busy!” During the exhibition #islastone supporters will be spending time in the Atkins Gallery to talk about Isla’s campaign and offer advice on creating your own #islastone.
Lisa Crankshaw organise the display.
She said: “After painting stones with my daughter, who is 6 years old, and talking to people about why we are doing it, I realised that there are still many people who don’t access helped social media.
“Some of the artwork is much better when you can see it up close, not via a photograph.
“I thought that the Atkins gallery would be an ideal central place for the stones to be gathered, just for a short time, here in the town where it all began.”
“Isla was such an inspiration to many people, young and old. These stones bring joy to many, also making them aware of childhood cancer, especially DIPG, which is the form Isla had.”
From 3pm on the closing day of the exhibition, Friday August 17, everyone is invited to come into the gallery and collect some #islastones to take back out and hide in the local area.
Any remaining stones after the exhibition closes can be collected from the reception of the Atkins Building from Monday August 20 at 9am.