Britain's 'Bee Lady' Raises £100,000 With A Tin Cup

October 18, 2013

After 14 years of creating quite the buzz on the streets of Britain, a woman who wears a bee costume every day nabbed one of the country’s top fundraising awards.

Jean Bishop, 91, has collected more than 100,000 pounds for Age UK Hull, a nonprofit that aims to improve the quality of life for seniors. She’s managed to capture the hearts, and generous donations, of passersby by charming them with her quick wit and bright bee costume, which her daughter made for her out of three hula-hoops and some material from a charity shop, according to the BBC.

For her persistent efforts, Bishop, who hails from Hull, was named “Fundraiser of the Year” at the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards.

“I can’t believe it,” Bishop said when she learned that she was getting the honor. “It makes tears come to my eyes.”

Bishop was first inspired to start fundraising after her husband died, and hasn’t let anything, not even battling severe arthritis, stand in her way.

"She has serious staying power to stand with that tin all day,” Pam Davies, chief executive of Age UK Hull, told the BBC, “and to do it all in that outfit, which isn't the most comfortable, is incredible,"