We are Graham and Sarah, a father and daughter team and the potters behind Potted History, our small family business creating replicas of ancient ceramics for museums, archaeologists and collectors around the world.

But in 2024, the calm of our happy pottery workshop was turned upside down when Sarah was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.

Two years and a gruelling series of treatments later, I am doing well. There is still a way to go, including at least two more surgeries, but we have reached a point where we want to celebrate how far we have come by doing something positive for the future.

So, on Saturday 24 October 2026, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we are joining the wonderful team at Roman Vindolanda to fire up a reconstructed Roman kiln and raise money for Breast Cancer Now.

I am incredibly grateful for the treatment that has given me the chance to be here, making pots, raising my family and looking towards the future. I am also very conscious that women in the past did not have those opportunities.

I want the women and men diagnosed with breast cancer in the future to have an even better chance of surviving it, with treatments that are more effective and, hopefully, kinder than those many of us undergo today.

In the Roman world, someone facing serious illness might turn to the gods for help, making offerings and asking for healing and protection. Among the objects going into our kiln will be replica votive breasts and figures of deities associated with health, healing and protection.

As those objects are fired in our reconstructed Roman kiln, they will be a reminder of just how far we have come: from asking the gods for a cure to research, medicine and treatments that save lives.

And we want that progress to continue.

That is why we are raising money for Breast Cancer Now, helping to fund research and support that can give people facing breast cancer today, and in the future, more reasons to hope.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

The simplest way is to donate here. Every contribution, large or small, will help us support Breast Cancer Now and the work they do.

You can also come and cheer us on! Join us at Roman Vindolanda on Saturday 24 October 2026 and see whether we manage our slightly bonkers target of getting at least 200 ceramic boobs into a Roman kiln.

Once the firing is complete, replicas from the project will also be available through the Potted History online shop. If you would like to own a little piece of the story, buying one is another lovely way to support what we are doing. These sales are separate from our fundraising for Breast Cancer Now, but they help support our small family pottery and, importantly, will help us make events like this possible again.

We would love this to become an annual fundraiser, with a Roman kiln full of boobs returning each October and, hopefully, getting bigger and better every year.

So please donate if you can, come and see us at Vindolanda if you are nearby, share what we are doing, or simply follow along and see whether we hit that magic number of 200.

If our slightly bonkers plan to fill a Roman kiln with a couple of hundred ceramic boobs can play even a tiny part in helping create a future where more people survive breast cancer, with better and kinder treatments, then it will be a firing worth doing.