Naomi Penrose

Hello Everyone,

I am asking for £3000 to help my niece.

While buying essentials to open the cafe of her dreams, some men stole £3000 worth of equipment. We shouldn't know the hurt that stealing causes but unfortunately for a lot of us we have felt that pain and disappointment in our fellow humans.

Let's show Naomi that people are kind. Just £1 each would help.

Here is a little of her story;

When I had my oldest daughter, Kara, I was 18, had just quit my job 160miles away (3 weeks after I started it) and moved back to my mum's. I thought, being pregnant so young, my life would be over, I would have never thought then, that 6 and a half years later I would be achieving my dream of opening a cafe!

3 months after having Kara I started Kara’s Cakes & Catering, I made cakes and buffets for office functions, parties, weddings, etc. That business grew faster than I could handle, I had family, friends and taxis helping me drop buffets all over Manchester. I was trying to do the admin side of things as well as baking, making food and looking after a baby full time it was super hard work and my mum definitely saved my life 700004738202 times!

But as the income wasn’t guaranteed monthly, 1 month I had loads of spare cash and the next I was struggling to pay my bills. (Obviously should have been saving but 18yr old me was splashing on trips away and baby trainers) So I put a pin in the business and started working as a chef & waitress in the day and bartender the odd nights I had moved out at this point and although things were a lot cheaper then, £5 an hour didn’t get very far after paying nursery, rent, &the rest. I ended up moving back in to my mums, before moving into the house I live now, dropping the catering side of the business to just be Kara’s Cakes. I did cakes along side my full time jobs for years, building up my amazing regular customers.

Then lockdown happened, I was already pregnant with my 2nd daughter, and working an office job from home with a then 4 year old off school.

Looking back, I was probably pychotic but I decided that Mat leave was my perfect time to build up this business as much as I could so I started doing more and more cakes, tray bakes, cookies, etc if anyone remembers how popular #sprinklecakes were in lockdown 1.0 you’ll know how busy I was.

But during this time I made my first £1000 in a month from cakes, which might not sound a lot to anyone else but at the time I was so happy I cried because for the first time it actually started to feel like I could turn my dream into a reality! From there I continued to grow my customer base, improve my skills and work behind the scenes on my goal of opening a shop of my own.

The planning, preparation, searching for the perfect premises, endless spreadsheets, calculating, and probably going through every emotion under the sun will hopefully all be worth it very soon.

https://www.facebook.com/Karascakesfb

https://www.instagram.com/karas_cakescafe/

These are the bigger items stolen;

Here are some of her amazing cakes, just look at that trainer!