Downing Street gets giant, knitted delivery

This March, Oxfam supporters began creating a giant, knitted blanket to bring attention to the lack of decent maternal medical care in poor countries.

On 17 September, more than 14,000 squares were handed over to the Prime Minister's wife, Sarah Brown, at Number 10.

Josephine Pazos, an Oxfam volunteer from Leeds, went to Downing Street for the hand in.

Needles have been clicking up and down the country and across the seas since Oxfam launched its maternal health campaign. Thousands of people have been inspired to add a square to the giant blanket and I was one of them.

World leaders pledged to cut maternal mortality by 75 per cent by 2015 when they set up Millennium Development Goals, and we pledged to hand in the blanket to Downing Street so that they'd sit up and take notice.

And who could fail to notice a lovingly crafted 40m long blanket representing thousands of people's call for action to be taken?

And so for that trip down to Downing Street. Sarah Brown is sensitive to the issues surrounding maternal health in developing countries and is actively involved in raising awareness. For me, an Oxfam volunteer, it was a special honour to have the opportunity to go to Downing Street and represent all the fabulous knitting activists.

We "checked in" to Downing Street along with Carrie Longton from Mumsnet and her daughter Mimi in her buggy. After some initial press interviewing, we were invited into Number 10 where Sarah Brown came down with her own children and presented us with a lilac knitted square.

I then set about, somewhat fumblingly, sewing Sarah's petition square onto a small section of the blanket. Sarah listened to the stories behind the squares and was full of support for the campaign. She has been following developments closely and talked at length about maternal health in developing countries and the tasks ahead.

After Downing Street we headed for the Royal Horticultural Halls to reunite the blanket with all the other squares. Not only was the blanket mammoth, so too was the task of laying out all the squares (confession time - it wasn't possible to sew them all together... they were still coming in thick and fast right up until Tuesday).

As for the blanket, it looked amazing. An incredible, beautiful and uplifting riot of colour that represented so many people from so many places that really seemed to be saying together we can do it!

Thank you so much to everyone who knitted a square. When the progress on the Millennium Development Goals is reviewed at the United Nations this week, we'll be watching to see if effective action is planned to tackle maternal mortality.

And we'll be reporting back to you on what happens.