Shearer breaks world record in memory of young daughter

Well-known in the shearing community, Stuart Connor talks to Emily Ashworth about breaking the world record while raising money for a charity close to his heart.

As a parent, you cannot even begin to imagine the pain of losing a child, but for Stuart Connor and his wife Kira, they lost their first born, Grace, at just three years old and have been raising money in her memory ever since. Life certainly dealt them a devastating blow when Grace was diagnosed with mitochondrial disease, a condition the couple had never heard of, let alone ‘understand how their happy and healthy daughter who was full of life had it'.

Stuart says: "She was just a normal child. We didn't know there was anything wrong. We found out that me and Kira both carry a faulty gene, so it was a one-in-four chance. Grace picked up a faulty gene copy from me and from Kira.

"This resulted in her having a particularly aggressive and fast-progressing form of the disease."

Born on Valentine's Day in 2015, Grace had her first seizure in March 2018, which Stuart says came from nowhere. Grace was finally diagnosed on April 21, 2018, and passed away on April 23, 2018, and since then, both Stuart and Kira have been determined to fundraise for The Lily Foundation, a charity which supports those with the disease and their loved ones, while funding research into finding a cure.

For Stuart, who was ‘hooked' on farming from a young age, it was clear he wanted to raise funds while doing something he is clearly passionate about. Having worked on farms since he was 11, his grandfather had also farmed a small tenancy when Stuart was a child and this gave him the farming bug.

Passion

Having studied at Moreton Morrell College, Warwickshire, it was here as part of his course that he began shearing and, afterwards, spent seven years travelling to New Zealand to shear in the autumn. He had, however, set his sights on the world shearing record and began to train.

He says: "I'd watched Matt Smith and Ivan Scott do their record and thought ‘I want to do that'. It was something I'd wanted to do when Grace was alive anyway; something to make her proud of her dad. You have these drives [as parents]."

"I started shearing on the show circuit to improve and was trying make the England team for the world championships. But then we ended up losing Grace and people started donating and it grew from there. Kira said she didn't want me to stop."

In 2019, he attempted the nine-hour lamb world record at Fern Hill Farm, Bristol, while using it as a fundraiser, but fell short, finishing on 785. On July 28, however, he took the title at the event, which was held at Trefranck Farm, Cornwall, owned and hosted by current world nine-hour strongwool ewe record-holder Matt Smith, and his wife Pippa. Stuart managed a record-breaking 872 lambs, averaging about 97 lambs per hour and beating Irish shearer Ivan Scott's previous record of 867.

Stuart says: "Breaking the record is a big thing, but it's more the coming together of shearers and farmers."

Of course, breaking the record is something Stuart has been working towards, but being able to simultaneously raise money for ‘Team Grace' is a humbling experience for the couple, who are in constant awe of the support they receive.

Charity

On the day of the record, they also raised money for Farming Community Network and Cornwall Air Ambulance.

He says: "We did a raffle and an auction of various agricultural products too and I donated two shearing hand pieces and some cutters. They sold to Steven O'Neill of SON Shearing Trailers for £1,600. Bear in mind you can buy new ones for half this price."

Stuart and Kira's story has reached far and wide, with donations flooding in from various places, and to date they have raised an incredible £67,275, all of which will go towards making huge improvements to treatment, funding research to find a cure for mitochondrial disease and to help families affected by it. Looking ahead, Stuart and Kira run 600 New Zealand Romneys across 121 hectares (300 acres) in Banbury, Oxfordshire, as part of a share farming agreement.

Honour

They also have Elliot, three, who was only a baby when his sister passed away.

Fortunately, Elliot was tested and does not carry the faulty genes Grace did. As a family, though, they will continue to raise awareness of this disease, but Stuart says it would not have been possible to reach such monetary milestones without those who have shown an incredible amount of generosity. He says: "It always amazes me how the farming community comes together and [it is] that sense of community.

"It blows me away how generous people can be. These people are not multi-millionaires, they are normal people who have massive mortgages on farms and bills to pay, yet they are still giving money. That is what astounds me. It is ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I've had it before when I've shorn in open competition finals and the other [competitors] have given their prize money to The Lily Foundation pot.

"What shearing and farming has raised is amazing, but it is not just the shearing community, there is a huge amount of other stuff - Rugby Farmers Market sponsored me to take on the record and someone donated a Mule to be sold for the charity, which ended up being sold 14 times for £5,000.

"From an outside point of view, although people feel extremely sorry for you, life goes on for them and we understand that. But for us as parents, we just love hearing Grace's name. We love hearing people talk about her and ask questions about her. To us, it's keeping her name going."