Saved not once, but twice by Salford Royal Hospital, artist Sian Elizabeth, better known as Fanny Gogh, is now giving back.
Her vibrant windows, shaped by resilience and community, are bringing colour and care into the hospital.
On a day so grey it could sulk, Salford still somehow radiated. Pastel light bounced off the windows of the Ladywell building, colours that local artist Sian Elizabeth, had carefully chosen to brighten the hospital’s outdoor space.
“It has to help to heal,” she says, watching the light catch. Even the gloomiest of skies couldn’t mute her vibrancy.
Commissioned by Salford Royal’s Northern Care Alliance, this project is more than just decoration. For Sian, it’s personal. Her mother was a nurse at Salford Royal during the 60s and 70s; she was born prematurely, spending six weeks in an incubator.
Decades later, after major heart surgery, she was rushed back to the hospital’s heart care unit where, as she puts it, “they basically saved my life.” Twice, Salford Royal has been her lifeline. Now, she is giving back. “I’m absolutely over the moon that my art is in the building that has been a massive part of my family.”
She was so charismatic, so effortlessly magnetic, that our conversation naturally spilled into the Royal Sovereign. Enjoying all things northern, a pint and a chip butty later, I was calling her me auntie. That was the type of energy she carried, illuminating more than just the hospital.
Sian’s pseudonym, Fanny Gogh, was christened by a tabloid after she used lingerie to create a knickerbocker glory collage for her Beautiful Trash exhibition in 2009. She admits the name has stuck rather reluctantly (“especially with a northern accent like,”) but it has since become her iconic signature. Her “knickerbokaglories” have raised thousands for charity, with celebrities from Sara Cox to Chelsea Healey sending their “smalls” to be immortalised in her saucy collages. Since then, she’s appeared on ‘Home is Where the Art is’ and, more recently, ‘DIY SOS’ and continues to have her fingers in many pies.
Charity is a noticeable constant. “If I can’t give money, I can give my time and skills.” She describes herself as a “sucker for charities,” preferring causes where she can see the impact directly. Her current commission is exactly that: transforming dull, drab spaces into environments that support wellbeing and rehabilitation for patients with dementia, brain injuries and strokes.
Witnessing the nurses’ commitment to her late friend Simon Lee, from as small as bringing in household items to make it feel more homely, became part of what inspired her to give back to Salford Royal. “I want to give back after seeing the commitment to everyone and everything here.”
“It was compelling enough to just see what those unbelievable nurses did on a day-to-day basis, and how much the patients would benefit from just being able to go down in a wheelchair to an outdoor area, especially when you’re stuck in a ward.”
Fanny’s currently working closely with nurses to ensure her art meets patients’ specific needs. “Colour and the right environment help improve their cognition,” she explains. Her mural, which is set to be completed soon, will build on this spirit of care.
Graduating from Bucks New University in High Wycombe, where she specialised in Textile Design and Surface Decoration, she built an international career in art and design before turning her focus to community projects. Now based in Salford, she’s become part of the city’s creative fabric, bringing colour not just to galleries but to hospitals, charities and community spaces.
More recently, Sian has teamed up with artist Georgina Taylor to create a magical Christmas installation at the Edison Bar in Monton. “Working with Sian was honestly wonderful – she’s fun, creative, and full of personality,” says Georgina. “She pours passion into everything and adds her own artistic twist into every detail. She’s become a friend, and I’d jump at the chance to team up with her again.”
But the story of her art is also the story of her resilience. Misdiagnosed and mislabelled for years with ‘panic attacks’, she only discovered at 39 that she had an atrial septal defect – a 4.5cm hole in her heart. Surgery followed, complicated by pericarditis, pneumonia and a collapsed lung.
What got her through it? “Kids,” she says without hesitating.
During her lowest, she became fascinated by death rituals, exploring how different cultures grieve – even imagining her own funeral as an art exhibition. It reinforced her belief that art is not just decoration, but a way to process mortality and grief.
After Simon Lee died at Salford Royal nearly two years ago, Sian channelled her grief into something tangible. She made jewellery from his clothes for his friends as wearable keepsakes that preserved and carried his memory forward. It was intimate, personal, and deeply rooted in her belief that art can help people process loss.
On the back of ‘Home is Where the Art is’, she was commissioned to create a graffiti wall in tribute to Gary Washington McFarlane, a man deeply passionate about Hip-Hop and graffiti culture. To honour him, she designed a wall with hidden compartments at the back, so friends and family could place messages and mementoes inside.
Today, 2 December 2025, marks 14 years since his passing, and the artwork still resonates. Gary’s daughter, Naomi McFarlane, 34, said:
“We’ve actually still got that piece of artwork up in the hallway, and it still means a lot to us. What was so nice about what Fanny did for us was putting in the boxes so that you can put any memories or keepsakes within the artwork. It was so unique, and it captured us straight away.”
Naomi told me that she still interacts with it today:
“Every time you walk past in the morning or evening, you always look at it, and you always want to open the box. Even seeing the artwork for the first time was very emotional. It just shows you that no matter how much time goes by, that person is always important to you.
“Keep their spirit alive and never forget.”
Sian said, “It’s an artist’s dream when you get someone to feel your work. I was so honoured they chose my art.”
The wall, holding memories, lyrics, and keepsakes, preserves Gary’s spirit and lets it live on. Her art isn’t made to be observed: it’s made to be engaged with and remembered.
The operation at Salford Royal didn’t just mend her heart: it gave her the courage to leave an unhappy marriage and create a life that she now totally owns. “Life is really, really short,” she says. “It gave me strength to start again.” Now, with her children grown, she describes this new chapter as a “breath of fresh air.”
“At 54, my life’s starting over again. It’s my time now.”
That renewal is visible in the Ladywell building, where patients and families encounter her work daily. “Before the operation, I used to paint extremely dark colours and dark hues, but afterwards, everything was bright. Saturated and colourful.” What was once shadowed by muted greys is now saturated with vibrant light. It’s almost as if the change came from somewhere deeper than intention. It’s no surprise that she referenced Toulouse-Lautrec’s Parisian posters as her dream artwork – bold, colourful, and alive with personality.
Diagnosed with ADHD only three years ago, she laughs about her mind sometimes “tripping,” but says the label finally made sense of her lifelong “hyperfocus”. From commandeering sewing machines as young as eight to the murals she is now working on for the hospital, that intensity has always been her fuel. It explains the passion, the restless creativity, and the way she throws herself into projects at “full blast.”
That mentality is now directed at Salford Royal. The mural she plans will not only brighten the hospital’s walls but also stand as a testament to resilience, renewal, and the healing power of colour. From dark hues to vivid pinks, from incubator to artist, Sian Elizabeth’s story is inseparable from the hospital she now decorates: a place that saved her life, and where her art can now help others.
“Everyone is a creative on different scales of a large spectrum. Some are fully switched on from birth, others tune in at different stages. Me… I was born and stuck at full blast.”
See more from Fanny Gogh on Instagram using the link here
Ladywell Building | Salford Royal
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