Olive Cooke: poppy-seller's death raises charity hounding concerns
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Version 0 of 1. Charities have expressed concern and sorrow at the death of the 92-year-old poppy-seller Olive Cooke, whose body was found in a rocky gorge after she had said she felt hounded by requests from fundraisers for donations. Related: Long-serving British poppy-seller died after being 'tormented' by cold-callers Cooke was found dead in the Avon Gorge in Bristol, close to the Clifton suspension bridge and not far from where she spent more than 75 years selling as many as 30,000 poppies. Friends and family have said that in recent months she felt tormented by the number of requests for help from a wide range of charities. An inquest will examine the background to her death but those closest to her believe approaches from charities may have contributed to her distress. Some charities on Friday said they had contacted Cooke, and explained how and why. Others said they had launched investigations into their contacts with her. Kate Allen, the director of Amnesty International UK, said her team last telephoned Cooke, a long-standing supporter of the human rights charity, in April. Allen said: “During that call, even though Olive did not say so explicitly, we sensed she would prefer not to be called again. “We then amended our details immediately, as is standard operating procedure for all of our supporter relations. This was the last and only call we made to Olive in 2015.” She added: “I am deeply saddened by the news of Olive’s tragic death. I am concerned that she felt harassed by charities. We are taking this issue very seriously and are looking into the details. “Olive was a long-standing and valued supporter of Amnesty. Her relationship with Amnesty as a supporter and donor began over 20 years ago.” Jon Bodenham, director of fundraising at Alzheimer’s Society, said a mailing it sent Cooke was likely to be a one-off sent to a list of potential donors. He said: “We sent a mailing last year asking people to help us in our efforts to tackle dementia. Such mailings are a way of reaching out to people who may be unaware of our work. “As a responsible fundraiser we adhere to the Institute of Fundraising’s code of practice and apologise to people if our letters reach them at a difficult time. We would urge anyone who does not want to hear from us to let us know so we can remove them from our lists.” Cooke was also a donor to the Christian charity Open Doors UK. It said she had been involved for more than 20 years. It had sent her literature she requested but had never telephoned her. The chief executive, Lisa Pearce, said: “Open Doors’s policy is that we do not call supporters to ask them for money. We have never phoned Olive.” A spokesman for Spana, which works to protect animals abroad, said Cooke was a supporter – but it had never called her and had taken her off a mailing list when she complained to her local paper last year about the volume of requests she was receiving. Cooke’s family are calling for a change in the law to stop elderly and vulnerable people being targeted by charities. There are people that can easily put the phone down and say no, but there are others who feel pressured Her grandson, Kevin King, said: “There are people that can easily put the phone down and say no and be quite strong about it, but there are others who feel pressured. As soon as you open the door a little bit [to charities] it goes wide open.” King said his grandmother was of a generation who found it harder to say no. He added: “These people might not mean to put her under pressure, they might think they are the only person phoning, but there could have been 10 phone calls half an hour before. “I think [charities] just see a number and they don’t see a face or how old that person is. They probably don’t look at her as a person – more as just a number and a name.” Cooke started selling poppies in 1938 when she was 16 after her father served in the Gallipoli campaign. She vowed to continue after the death of her first husband Leslie in action during the second world war when she was 21. Her relatives have said she was in ill-health and was also upset that £250 she sent in the post to a relative went missing. The MP for Bristol East, Kerry McCarthy, said she would be contacting the Charity Commission about the case. “I think it’s important to establish the facts, but I will certainly do all I can to follow up on reports that Olive felt besieged by begging letters and calls from charities, to which she had been so generous in the past,” McCarthy wrote on Facebook. A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said: “Raising money from the public is vital to the success of many charities, so they must take complaints seriously and act in order to protect public trust and confidence.” |