Visitors to Forth Valley grotto help raise over £5k for Strathcarron Hospice

A total of £5,853.50 was raised for the Fankerton-based facility after 1605 people attended the grotto at Thistles Shopping Centre in the run up to Christmas.

This was the first time the shopping centre had held the seasonal event in honour of a local charity – all proceeds from the £5 ticket charge were donated directly to the hospice.

Gary Turnbull, centre director at Thistles, said: “We are thrilled at the response from the public to our Santa’s Grotto and that together we have raised such a fantastic amount of money for Strathcarron Hospice.

"The event proved to be so popular that we had to add additional dates which meant that we were able to raise as much money as possible for charity.”

Claire Kennedy, community fundraiser at Strathcarron, said: “We were delighted to be the beneficiary charity of the Thistles Santa’s Grotto this year.

“It was a magical experience for all the children and families who visited the grotto and every penny raised through ticket sales and purchases on the day have gone direct to patient care both in the hospice and in people’s own homes.

"We need to raise £14,315 every day to keep our services running and thanks to the local community and partnerships like this one, we can continue to provide specialist palliative care to people who need us at the end of life.”

Thank you for reading this article on our free-to-read website. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

Please consider purchasing a subscription to our print newspaper to help fund our trusted, fact-checked journalism.

https://www.localsubsplus.co.uk/nord/dm/FKH/V