Bates Farm selling limited number of pink pumpkins for great cause

Sisters, Fiona and Alison Wilshaw, are adding some extra colour to their ‘pick your own’ pumpkin patch this year to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

The family has recently come to terms with the devastating news that their dad and long-term owner of the farm Mike has terminal cancer, and the girls decided they wanted to ‘give something back’.

Mikes youngest daughter Fiona, 24, has agreed to take over as farmer and continue her father’s legacy.

“My dad has had cancer since 2017,” Fiona said. “We bought this farm in 1953. The farm is dads lasting legacy.

“A month ago, we realised it had all changed and he was not going to get better. He is now on palliative care, and he has come home from the hospital.”

Fiona (left) and Alison (right) are selling the different seed of pumpkin to raise money for Cancer Research UK (Image: Newsquest)

The Warrington Road farm has been selling pumpkins to the public for the past 11 years, growing more and more each year.

“The first year we did it, we grew 15 pumpkins in our back garden, and we sold them all in one morning,” Fiona said.

“We now have 30 different varieties of pumpkins and we have grown around 15,000 this year, including 1,000 pink pumpkins.

“We are selling the pink pumpkins for £8 each, with all the proceeds going to charity.”

The pink colour, the girls explained, come from a specific seed of pumpkin that they have chosen to grow this year.

As well as pink pumpkins, Bates farm has hundreds of pumpkins to choose from for the public to go and pick themselves (Image: Newsquest)

Alison, 25, said how they are now expanding the indoor sheds on the farm this year to have a seating area next to some of the animal pens.

As well as including a hot drink station that will be open on the weekends, so people can pick their pumpkins and then observe the wonderful farmyard with a hot beverage after.

“We are selling the pink pumpkins in support of our dad, but also in support of anyone who has had to battle cancer,” Alison said.

A tally board is propped up on display in the pumpkin shed, so that every child who choses and purchases a pink pumpkin can add to the tally to show the difference they have made and their contribution to charity.

The pink pumpkins are £8 and all proceeds go to Cancer Research UK (Image: Newsquest)

Mike, who is 64, has grown up on the farm, with his family first purchasing the land when he was a child.

Alison and Fiona described his devotion to his work on the farm, even throughout his years battling cancer.

“This is dad’s mission. He has done everything to make this farm run how he wants it to. He has put up every shed here. He has put everything into this place.”

While avid farmer Fiona will take over her father’s role, Alison and mum Diane will join with Fiona as partner of Bates Farm and continue to run it as the family farm they have always known it to be.

If you want to purchase a pink pumpkin and to the funding pot, visit Bates Farm in Risley and choose your own from a great selection - just in time for Halloween.