The Transplant Games in Sheffield this year (August), introduced many of us to Sheffield’s well-loved local artist, Pete McKee. Pete is a contemporary artist and cartoonist, best known for his nostalgic and humorous paintings of Northern working-class life.
In 2013, on the gable end of Fagan’s pub, in Broad Lane, Sheffield, Pete painted a larger-than-life image of an elderly couple “embraced in a kiss”, as some would say. “Having a snog”, say others, and that’s the title it was given – The Snog.
Its fame spread rapidly and Frank and Joy, as they were named, have become a popular backdrop for couples and newlyweds posing for their own photographs. It’s a local landmark, iconic of Sheffield, with its fame travelling beyond South Yorkshire in the hearts – and merchandise – of tourists returning home, and student graduates looking for souvenirs of their adventures in the local university.
Then, in April 2024, it was gone. Taken off, as the pub wall was in desperate need of TLC, and new rendering. Locals were worried it would be gone for ever, and the pleasure and joy it had given to thousands of people would be no more.
Not so. A month later Pete repainted it (twice, after heavy rain prevented the full recovery of the first attempt). Back, but with a few changes. “I took the opportunity to give Joy a new hairdo and get her a new coat,” Pete said. “The mural looks lovely and vibrant now and is set for the next 20 years – and more, hopefully.”
Pete knows well the drama of needing TLC and then coming back, with a few changes. A hereditary condition affecting his lungs and liver led to a life-saving liver transplant in 2017. Pete’s donor was Mark Piotr, and Mark’s widow, Karen was with him at the Transplant Games.
Since her husband died, and while living with her grief, Karen has become a passionate advocate for organ donation, and serves as chair of the organ donation committee at Bradford Royal Infirmary.
In an interview for BBC News this week, as part of Organ Donation Week, Karen said, “It’s quite a strange conversation to be able to recall when you’re in an intensive care ward. But I just immediately turned around and said, ‘you know, we’re organ donors, don’t you?’
“There are eight people now alive having that second chance of life because I knew his decision and I was happy to honour it.”
Pete learned that Mark loved playing golf, so he decided to take it up himself. The Sheffield Transplant Games was Pete’s fourth, competing as a golfer.
Pete has now used his artistic talents to live his gratitude to Mark and Piotr by “paying it forward” and designing six new versions of the Organ Donor card to encourage more people to sign up to the national register. The cards can be talking points to let people know if you are a donor and maybe encourage others to think about signing up to be a donor too. Limited sets of the cards were available at the Games and, in Pete’s unique style, echo some of the local Sheffield stories, not least in the steelworker pouring molten steel into a heart-shaped mold.
https://register.organdonation.nhs.uk/start
If you were designing an organ donor card with a local touch, or some other eye-catching chance to encourage others to think about organ danotion, what would you do?
For a lighter touch to finish, Pete is also the founder of a band that played at the opening ceremony of the Games. The Everly Pregnant Brothers are a very popular and wildly daft comedy parody ukulele band, rewriting famous pop and rock songs with particular South Yorkshire humour. They’re easy enough to find in that internet thing…