Hotshots of Bowls Calendar-in memory of Hannah Overton-reaches £22,000
The Hotshots of Bowls nude charity calendar, organised in support of Hannah Overton, has to date raised £22,233.52.
The money will be split between Bloodwise and Cancer Research UK and comes from calendar sales and donations.
Throughout the summer months of 2018, almost 60 English bowlers bared all to produce the nude calendar after learning that Hannah had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia.
The Parkway club bowler, who was just 28, died on December 23.
Hannah started her bowls career at the age of ten by playing indoors at Peterborough Indoor Bowls Club and outdoors at Whittlesey Manor Bowls Club.
She was part of the Huntingdonshire team that won the England Under 31s National Competition in 2003.
She played in the pairs with Michelle Coleman and in 2011, they reached the final of the Women’s National Pairs Championship.
She played triples with Emma Thurston and Pat Reynolds and Michelle joined to make a fours team.
They qualified for the National finals together for many years and enjoyed a very successful bowling career together.
Hannah made her England debut in 2006 at the age of 15 and went on to represent her country in numerous International Series’, including captaining the England Blue team to success in Northern Ireland in 2014.
In 2012 the bowlers moved from Whittlesey Manor Bowls Club to Parkway Bowls Club, Maskew Avenue in Peterborough.
Hannah was an integral part of Parkway BC’s run to the final of the Women’s Top Club in 2017.
Hannah secured a National title in 2012 as a member of Huntingdonshire’s Walker Cup team, before also reaching the Women’s National Junior Singles Championship Final in 2014.
Hannah made a lot of friends throughout her life from Sir Harry Smith College in Whittlesey, Lincoln University, the two schools that she worked for Gladstone Primary School and St Botolph’s CofE Primary School and the British bowling community and this showed at her funeral that was attended by about 300 people who had travelled from all over the country to be there.
She had a guard of honour from her fellow bowlers from the Parkway Bowls club.
Emma said: “Hannah wasn’t only a bowling partner, she was also one of our best friends, always happy and would do anything for anyone and this year is going to be especially hard when we put on our team shirts for the first time without her by our side.
“We are having a memorial teddy bear made from her Parkway shirt so she will be able to come along and be our mascot in our future games.
“The world of bowls is devastated to lose one of our family and she will be remembered by us with various charity events that are being organised across the country.”
