Poppleton & Appleby art purchase aids Children’s Hospital
A Midlands business rescue and insolvency firm has swooped in to strengthen the donations raised for Birmingham Children’s Hospital after purchasing artwork created by a young heart patient.
Max Ponsonby, who lives in Bromsgrove, was asked to design a painting that would reflect his story as a patient, as part of a project to celebrate the hospital’s 150th anniversary.
The 15-year-old was born with a serious heart defect called ‘Pulmonary Atresia with VSD’ and has already undergone two life-saving operations, the first of which when he was just four-days-old.
After spending long periods of time at the children’s hospital, Max was inspired by the idea of creating a superhero ward and decided to paint himself, his friends and the doctors with supernatural powers.
Max’s painting was one of 150 pieces showcased as part of the ‘My Beautiful Children’s Hospital’ exhibition before business recovery and insolvency experts Poppleton & Appleby purchased the canvas during an online auction held to boost funds for the hospital.
Max, who wants to be a comedy actor, said: “It was really great to find out that Poppleton & Appleby had decided to buy the painting, especially as there were so many to choose from.
“I can’t believe that it will now be up on display for everyone to see at their Birmingham office.
“I have always been really interested in drawing and have watched all of the superhero movies – when I was younger I even created my own comic strip.
“We were given a blank canvas to complete the project and I decided to design a super-hero ward where me and my friends all have really cool super powers.
“I have always liked the idea of having really long arms so I decided to paint myself as a superhero that is really stretchy, while the others in the picture have powers such as super-speed, flight and super-strength.
“It’s quite funny really because my favourite characters in superhero films are usually the villains. I really like the Joker in Batman and Loki out of the Avengers.
“But it is all of the patients at the hospital and also those that work there that are the real heroes and therefore I thought they deserved to be portrayed as superheroes.”
Staff at Poppleton & Appleby had the opportunity to meet Max during the official handover of the painting and he even offered to sign the back of the canvas.
Martin Coyne, of Poppleton & Appleby, which has offices in Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton, said: “It was a real delight to get to meet Max and to find out more about his personal journey and also his experiences at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
“We loved the painting and the fact that he had chosen to include the theme of superheroes – Max has had to undergo a number of life-saving operations which must have taken an incredible amount of super-strength.
“We have held a number of fundraisers to show our support and help raise money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital including the donation of a Sunshine Coach for trips. We also purchased an additional painting that was designed by another patient and re-auctioned it to further boost funding.
“It is extremely important that we continue to raise money for the hospital and help to support youngsters such as Max in the future.”
