Imagine having your own business and being lucky enough to do something that you love as a job. Imagine being good enough at it that you can do it full-time… Imagine waking up one morning to discover that it's all gone up in flames.

This happened to a dear friend of ours, on 21 December: an electrical fire broke out in the roof space of his workshop, gutting it... The worst nightmare that could possibly befall a skilled craftsman and small business owner like Andy - especially in the run-up to Christmas.

Anyone who has run their own business knows the amount of dedication and money that goes into establishing such an endeavour, and when that work constitutes setting up a workshop, developing a career as an artisan and artist, buying specialist tools and machinery - especially the kind that Andy has in his professional woodturner's workshop - the cost and effort involved is significant.

Our initial funding goal was set at £5k - set by Siobhan early on Wednesday. Since then we have all realised that the damage is more severe than we thought and that Andy will likely have to replace in excess of £15k worth of equipment, including but not limited to:

- pedestal drill
- table saw
- filter hood/mask
- two bandsaws
- one of the (eyewateringly expensive) lathes which may be repairable with parts from Canada, but we have no guarantee that the fire damage won't be terminal even with those parts...
- Hand tools and other equipment

All this is unlikely to be covered by £5k so are now hoping to raise closer to £15k (and hopefully more) to help Andy get his workshop, his business, and his source of income back on track. The damage will continue to be assessed over the coming days and we will keep you updated.
Heartbreakingly, our funding goal doesn’t take into account the fact that Andy will have nowhere to work in the New Year.

Please let us know if you think you might be able to help on that front via siobhanhoffmann@gmail.com