News / Relay smashes fund raising records
SHETLAND has shattered fund raising records by raising almost a quarter of a million pounds during the Cancer Research Relay for Life event this summer.
More than 1,900 islanders, almost 10 per cent of the entire population, joined in an all night event at the end of May at Lerwick’s Clickimin running track, the largest ever to be held by Relay for Life in the UK
By the end of the night the figure raised was £158,000, however since then money has been pouring in from extra events organised in communities the length and breadth of Shetland to bring the final total to an extraordinary £224,164.24 – the equivalent of every islander handing over more than £10.
The Shetland fund raising effort has so impressed the national charity that they have asked how the islands achieved the result so they can pass on the recipe for success to the rest of the organisation.
Shetland Relay for Life chairwoman Olive MacLeod said: “One of Cancer Research’s senior development managers is going to the US and wanted me to quantify why and how we had done this.
“That’s really hard to do. It’s just because Shetland is special, we still have so much community spirit, which is something not so present in lots of bigger areas, and I think Shetland people are very generous and caring.”
That is not to say that Mrs MacLeod and her fellow committee members were not themselves stunned by the amount of contributions.
The first such event in Shetland four years ago raised £42,000, which was almost doubled to £83,000 two years ago.
“When we started we wondered if we would even match what we raised last time. This is beyond our wildest expectations, in fact we wondered if we had added up the figures right,” Mrs MacLeod, an accounting firm manager, said.
“I don’t think cancer is a growing concern in Shetland, but I do think people know more people that have cancer because it’s a small community. Shetland people genuinely want to help, we are a very caring community and people should be proud of what they have achieved.”
The Shetland organising committee worked for six months behind the scenes putting this year’s event together and will meet again later this month to “put it to bed”.
Last year Relay for Life contributed £355 million to research projects and the provision of doctors and nurses throughout the UK.
The next Shetland Relay for Life will be held in the summer of 2012.
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