A specialist care unit for babies at Raigmore Hospital has received an extraordinary donation from a grateful family.
Amelia Jo Kelly from Inverness was eight weeks premature when she was born on September 16, 2014 and had to spend the first four weeks of her life in the special care baby unit (SCBU) at Raigmore.
To celebrate Amelia’s first birthday, her family set out to raise £1,000 to donate to the unit – and ended up collecting more than £12,000 in just eight weeks.
Mother Kelly Macrae said: “We really wanted to give something back to the unit and our initial goal was to raise £1000, I can’t believe that we’re able to hand over a cheque for 12 times that.”
She explained that a number of fundraising events were held over eight weeks to raise money for the unit including a fun day, money collection at a recent Ross County game and a balloon release which represented all the babies who had been treated in SCBU.
In total these events raised £7,348 and Kelly’s friends Tony Vastano and Graham McPherson have donated £5,292 to the fund which they raised by doing a cycle trip bringing the grand total to £12,640.
Ms Macrae said: “It’s a lovely gesture from Tony and Graham, I’m incredibly grateful for their support and the support we’ve had from everyone during the fundraising campaign.
“In particular my friend Lisa Cowan whose son Zander was born on the same day as Amelia, she has been incredibly supportive.
“It seems fitting that Amelia got to present the unit with the cheque on her first birthday. I’m just so pleased we have been able to do this.”
Alison Maclean, senior charge nurse, accepted the cheque on behalf of the unit.
She said: “It was such a pleasure to see Amelia again. Many of the staff remember her from when she was a patient, and we couldn’t wait to wish her a happy birthday.
“We’re so grateful for this very generous donation and would really like to thank the Kelly family and everyone else who put in so much time and effort to fundraise this amazing amount.
“It will certainly be put to good use within the unit.”