Businessman with same cancer that killed father urges people to back life-saving campaign

George Baker, managing director of KRL Group Limited, has adopted the Daisy Appeal as his company’s charity of the year. He will also sponsor a giant rat in the latest animal sculpture trail which will be unveiled across East Yorkshire during 2025, and he hopes other businesses will join in.

“Mischief of Rats” has been devised by the team which previously delivered Larkin with Toads, A Moth for Amy and Puffins Galore! The inspiration for the latest project was Hull musician Mick Ronson, who died from cancer in 1993.

The guitarist first made an impact with the Hull-based band “The Rats” before earning international acclaim as a musician and producer, notably as a standout member of David Bowie’s band for five studio albums including The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

The decorated rats, each standing 6ft tall, will be appearing in locations across Hull and East Yorkshire next summer. Sponsored by local business, the rats will be auctioned to raise much needed funds towards the cost of a new state-of-the-art scanner to add to the life-saving facilities that have been provided by the Daisy Appeal at Castle Hill Hospital since 2008.

George said: “I see the charity of the year commitment and the sponsorship of a rat as sound investments on behalf of the people living in our region. My dad died from myeloma in 1979.

"I’ve been ill with it since 2010 and that fact I’m still here is evidence of the medical advances that have been made.

“Castle Hill has done a lot for me. The consultants there have been brilliant and I felt I should give something back.”

George’s wife Nicola also lost her father to cancer, and the couple, who have two sons and two daughters, were thinking of lost loved ones and current friends undergoing treatment for serious illnesses when they met the Mischief of Rats team at the Castle Hill site in Cottingham.

For more visit http://amischiefofrats.co.uk/