Mum and twin daughters raise funds for NHS by spending 10 hours taking doorstep photos in Northants villages

A Northampton photographer and her twin daughters dedicated their bank holiday to raising money by taking doorstep pictures of families.

Abby Cohen, who is a commercial photographer, has been left with no work at all during the lockdown.

Instead of sitting around at home, the mum from Ravensthorpe decided to head out to surrounding villages on Friday (May 8), with her 12-year-old twin daughters, Harriette and Isabelle, to take doorstep photographs of families.

The trio spent 10 hours capturing around 50 households, from a safe distance and have managed to raise more than £600 for the NHS.

Abby said: “I was just sitting here getting fed up like everyone so I thought 'how can I give something back while I have no work?’

“I’d seen some photographer friends doing doorstep photos in London and I thought it was a really good idea, especially because it’s really pretty where we live.

“I got in contact with a few Facebook groups around the villages to see how much interest there was and I was overwhelmed by it.

“Everyone thought it was a great idea.”

Once households had registered an interest, Abby made a spreadsheet and told families a rough time to expect their doorstep photo, as well as asking for a minimum online donation of £5 for via her JustGiving page that will be donated to the NHS.

The photographer and her daughters then spent all of VE Day taking pictures in Ravensthorpe, Spratton, Harlestone Manor, Long Buckby and surrounding villages.

Abby added: “With everyone being at home at the moment, I just thought it would be a good memento to look back on.

“And it worked well being VE Day as everyone was in high spirits and in their gardens.

“The girls came with me with a clipboard and so they could tick off where we’d been.

“As we worked our way round we had loads of people asking if they could have a picture too so we did around 50 houses in the end. Everyone was really supportive.

“We were absolutely exhausted and we couldn’t believe we’d done all of that.”

After taking all the photos, Abby edited them and then sent them out via email to those who were in the pictures.

Since heading out to take doorstep photos last week, Abby has been inundated with requests to do more, which she is more than happy to do as long as there are enough participating households in each area.

Requests can be made via email to [email protected].

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper when you do your weekly shop.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you