North Kessock family smashes fundraiser target for Melanoma UK after successful bake sale at village hall
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A NORTH Kessock family who pledged to raise vital funds for a charity close to their hearts have crashed through their fundraising goal raising almost £3000.
The Brown family decided to start a May fundraiser for Melanoma UK after father and husband, Gavin (48), was diagnosed with desmoplastic melanoma and had to undergo major surgery earlier this year, which damaged his facial nerve on the left side.
With May being Skin Cancer and indeed Melanoma awareness month, the family set themselves the goal to rise £500 over the period with a series of fundraising activities, among which a walking challenge and a bake sale.
Lindsay Brown (42) said that the initiative helped the whole family go through an extremely hard time.
"My husband was diagnosed with a very rare kind of melanoma in September last year and it came back again for a second earlier this year, after which he had to have a major operation and he lost his facial nerve.
"The kids were finding it a bit difficult and we heard that May was Melanoma awareness month so we thought that we'd throw ourselves in some fundraising, just to have something positive to focus on. And that's kinda really where it started."
The latest success was a bake sale which saw the community come together and put their baking skills for good. The event, which took place at North Kessock Village Hall, raised an incredible £1065 for the cause.
Mrs Brown said: "We planned three sections of our fundraising: first we said we would walk and cycle 100 miles over May and we achieved that by Sunday (May 22), my youngest boy Lucas wanted to do a bake sale, and with that we raised almost £1100 but he also had people helping him - one of the pupil support assistants in his class did a bake sale for the staff and a little boy in our street did a sweetie lucky dip to help with the fundraiser.
"My parents in South Africa had a sale of jams and bottled goods made by my mum and the RNLI North Kessock, for which my husband used to be a volunteer, donated £250 towards it and that money altogether made the total for the bake sale.
"I have also done some babysitting as a third part for the fundraiser.
"We felt really supported by our local friends here but also from the family that lives far away. It's been lovely, to feel so supported and loved by the people here.
After setting up their campaign at the start of the month, the family reached their initial in a record two hours.
She said: "Secretly we were hoping for £1000 but within two hours we had reached over £600 so we raised our target.
"It makes us feel great, it's nice to do something positive. Mostly for the kids, it's been great for them to get stuck in something and feel that they are doing good."
She said her husband is recovering well and will start a new treatment in the coming days.
"They have struggled, mostly the second time when it came back, and that's why I wanted them to be distracted towards something positive."
To support the Brown Family fundraiser, you can make a donation on their Facebook campaign at https://www.facebook.com/donate/569327027714141/10158507011190671/
