Tributes paid by colleagues at city hotel to popular doorman Charlie Murray who died at Highland Hospice
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Tributes have been paid to a popular Highland hotel doorman who passed away today at Highland Hospice.
Colleagues of Charlie Murray, who had worked at the Macdonald Drumossie Hotel since the early 2000s, shared the news via a post on their Facebook page earlier.
In the post they said they had said their final goodbyes to their "esteemed friend and colleague" whose earlier career at sea had included time aboard the QE2.
The post added: "If you have ever attended any of our many and prestigious events here at the Drumossie you will be sure to have been greeted by him proudly standing at the banqueting entrance in his kilt.
"His character and presence became synonymous with our events and a welcome that our guests would come to recognise as soon as they arrived.
"Always the character, everyone, even Hollywood actor Tommy Lee Jones, has a memory of Charlie."
Mr Murray had been given the all-clear from his lung and skin cancer at the beginning of last year however he became ill during lockdown and spent his final months in the care of the hospice.
The post read: "Charlie was forever grateful for the kindness and care he received from the nurses and staff at the hospice. They brought him humour and laughter throughout his time there and his desire was to give something back before he headed off to that great cruise liner in the sky.
"His dream was to present a cheque to the hospice before Christmas, and he set a target of £3000. His friends and family took part in the Hospice 555 fundraising event, walking/running around the grounds of the Drumossie and he was delighted to be able to hand over the princely sum of £4547 in December.
"For him to be able to present the cheque was particularly poignant at this time of year as Charlie was our Mr Christmas, often filling in for Santa Claus himself at our Christmas Day celebrations, as well as collecting for the Hospice at our big events throughout the year.
"The management and staff at the Drumossie Hotel would like express their deepest thanks to everyone at the Highland Hospice for the kindness, support, exceptional level of care and humour they have brought Charlie during his stay there.
"We will continue to support the Highland Hospice going forward, working in partnership to continue to raise funds on Charlie’s behalf. We still have a fantastic wine raffle to do and ask people to check out the Drumossie Hotel Facebook page for information on this coming soon."
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Related article: Drumossie Hotel doorman's colleagues raise cash for Highland Hospice
