A FAMILY-RUN business in Basingstoke is helping raise thousands of pounds for a children’s charity by selling an artist’s touching sketch of the Queen being reunited with Prince Philip.

Promotional merchandise and branding company THEMPC, based in Whitney Road in Basingstoke, is selling the sketch of artist Kerri Cunningham that went viral on social media.

All proceeds from sale of the sketch, titled ‘Hello again Lilibet’, will go to National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).

Kerri Cunningham, 34, who lives near Preston, Lancashire, usually creates poems and sketches based on her life as a busy mum-of-three under the business and pen name Murphys Sketches.

But as the news was breaking of the Queen’s death, she thought back to a photograph released when Prince Philip died, showing the Queen and Prince Philip sat on a picnic rug.

Kerri said: “They were just two people who loved each other, in their happy place. It really moved me at the time. When it became clear the Queen was very poorly, I knew what was coming and I imagined them together again on that picnic rug. I shared my sketch on Instagram as a tribute and thought that would be the end of it.

“But so many people liked and shared it. It became impossible to keep up with. I kept getting lovely emails from people asking if they could buy the sketch. The volume of emails was huge but it didn’t feel right to make a profit from something I only ever intended as a mark of respect.

“Then a family member mentioned the Queen had been a patron of the NSPCC till she was 90 and seeing as my husband and I have three young children, it felt right to raise money for such a good cause.

“The next hurdle was how to manage the process. I do everything manually so there was no way I could manage hundreds of orders. I put a message out on Instagram to see if I could find a printer who would help me do this, so all profit went straight to the NSPCC.”

Thankfully, Emma and Paul Marsh of THEMPC saw the plea and got in touch with Kerri to offer help with selling the painting online and raising funds for the charity.

“We had a crazy Facetime call on Saturday evening with all our kids roaming around,” Kerri said.

“I got a good feeling and within a few short days Emma, her husband Paul and their team had set up a website, sent me print samples and we were off. We’ve had over 1,100 orders in the first 48 hours.

“This might be my only opportunity to do something really good for charity and raise a serious amount of money to help children having the toughest time. And I’m sure the Queen would approve.”

Emma said: “When I saw Kerri’s plea for help, I knew we had the business capabilities she needed. Plus, we have three young children and already support local children’s charities through our business so it felt like we were perfectly aligned.

“Paul’s worked so hard to turn this around. He’s been up till midnight most evenings this week agreeing the products for sale, printing samples and working with the developer to get the website up and running, and now the orders are flying in. The comments we’re getting show people are buying the prints for family as well as themselves. We’re just excited and honoured to be part of something good during such a sad time.”

Kerri’s sketch, which was created using black pen and coloured pencils, shows the back of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip and one of their beloved corgis. Prince Philip has his arm around the Queen and the image is captioned ‘Hello again Lilibet’ – the Queen’s childhood nickname that Prince Philip often used.

A second sketch is also available, showing the Queen with one of her corgis and two rainbows. Many people saw two rainbows in the sky the day the Queen died.

The prints are available at print.thempc.co.uk

Emma said neither Kerri nor THEMPC are making any money from this endeavour.