The family of Barra’s Manchester Bomb victim has set up a charitable trust in memory of the teenager.
The Eilidh MacLeod Memorial Trust aims to give young people access to music – 14-year-old Eilidh was a piper – and to establish and maintain a permanent public memorial to Eilidh and the other 21 victims of the terror attack.
Eilidh’s friend Laura MacIntyre, 15, also of Barra, was badly injured when the suicide bomber detonated a deadly nail bomb at an Ariana Grande concert on May 22 2017.
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Speaking about the launch of the trust, Eilidh’s father Roddy MacLeod said: “Marion and I have been working with a small group on the island to help us develop our ideas for the memorial.
“We are very grateful for their continuing support in assisting us achieve both the objectives and ambitions of the trust.
“We want the memorial to remember Eilidh and all the bereaved and injured from the tragic events in Manchester, but for it also to portray the love, support and resilience of not only the people of Barra and Vatersay but all the people and communities who have helped us.
“We would also like to thank our families and friends for their support and being instrumental in forming the trust and for all the fund raising they have done.”
The trust will be used to advance the musical education of children and young people, mostly in rural Scotland. It will give access to various music-based activities and performance opportunities.
In the months that followed the tragedy, Eilidh’s family received countless letters of support and monetary donations from friends and strangers alike.
The positivity that flowed from the island’s community and from those further afield in reaction to the incident made the family think that a trust to benefit others would be a fitting memorial to Eilidh.
The Eilidh MacLeod Memorial Trust has already received great support from other organisations such as Ardonagh Community Trust (ACT); a registered charity of The Ardonagh Group, which is the UK’s leading independent insurance broking group. The support for The Eilidh MacLeod Memorial Trust was established through Margaret MacNeil, an Ardonagh employee, and the loving aunt of Eilidh.
The new trust will also benefit from the kind gestures by Skipinnish through the launch of their single and artist Hope Blamire, who held a charity auction last Christmas.