Seriously ill fashion designer finds therapy through his hand painted designs

A critically ill organ transplant patient who has had an operation cancelled twice due to the coronovirus pandemic is healing himself though his hand painted leather jacket company.

Richard Gair, of Gogairy Hand Painted Leathers, has survived a pancreas and kidney transplant after suffering from diabetes since a teenager.

Now 47, he survives on a daily cocktail of pills and injections to keep him alive. Over the past 18 months he has developed a painful hernia the size of a football which has split open his abdomen and until the procedure he will need a number of Botox injections to relax the surrounding muscles. This will allow the operation to more straight forward and less stressful on his abdomen. The operation was due to take place in March but was pushed back to April and now has been moved again with no further date planned

Artist and fashion designer Richard is on daily opiate painkillers to numb the pain from all this and is disappointed that his operation was cancelled, saying, “It’s a lot of mental preparation for an operation of this kind especially with an 80% survival rate. I have been fully prepped and prepared myself for it for several months. Now it’s been cancelled and of course I understand why. So I shall just carry on painting and selling my jackets.

GoGairy creates unique hand painted leather and vegan friendly faux leather jackets. Customers can create their own design which he then paints onto a jacket, making a bespoke timeless fashion piece for the wearer. Despite the pandemic the orders are flying in.

Richard said, “Everyone’s online and the traffic to my website and the GoGairy Facebook page is huge, it’s great! I have dropped by prices to reflect the current climate but life has to go on and I am very fortunate that my business is one working from home so I am unaffected by this.

I am in constant pain as a result of my health issues, and I do need to take a daily nap but I find painting really helps with the pain, it’s a really good distraction; a therapy and focusing on painting takes my mind off it. My operation was cancelled but in a way it’s blessing as I would have not been able to work for two to three months. And I can’t imagine not painting, I love it, I love creating a unique piece of art that people are proud to wear.”