Falkirk town centre pub raises more than £7000 for Strathcarron in memory of regular Richard 'Zoop' Borthwick

Staff at the Railway Tavern in Grahams Road organised a fundraising afternoon for the Fankerton-based hospice on Easter Sunday, April 9 with live music, a karaoke and disco.

The event was held in honour of Richard Borthwick, affectionately known as Zoop, who was a regular at the pub and was the chairman of the Carron Braes district darts league for many years.

Richard sadly passed away earlier this year after a short battle with cancer. Having spent his last few days in the hospice, the team at the Railway Tavern wanted to do what they could to raise much needed funds for the hospice.

A total of £7146.18 was raised through their fundraising for the charity.

As well as the disco and karaoke, local musician Dougie Smith performed on the day and the team held a raffle and auction with prizes kindly donated by local businesses.

Natasha Hoehle, one of the organsiers from the pub, said: “We would just like to thank all the local businesses who donated prizes and all our customers that bought raffle tickets and sold raffle tickets for us and attended the event. Thank you to our surprise guest Dougie Smith for coming along and singing a few songs.”

Kirsty Borthwick, Zoop’s daughter, did a bungee jump to raise some money and her little boy Logan did a sponsored walk around the Helix adding to the amount raised from the fundraising afternoon.

Natasha added: “We are absolutely amazed at how much we managed to raise for Strathcarron in just over three weeks, and are extremely proud of ourselves and of all our customers for their help and support in reaching an amount of money we could only ever have dreamed of.”