Edinburgh church raises £10,000 for Blood Cancer UK
Scotland
An Edinburgh church has raised £10,000 for Blood Cancer UK as part of their annual charitable efforts. Blackhall St Columba’s presented a cheque to the charity during a service on Sunday 26 January.
Lynn Bunney, from the congregation's WATCH committee which oversees the initiative, explained how the money was raised:
"WATCH stands for Working All Together Caring and Helping Through the Cross. We had a coin collection in the sanctuary through July and August, we also asked our congregation to send us a photo and we chose the 12 most photogenic pets and produced a calendar for 2025 which we sold at the coffee morning and fair, then we had our annual craft coffee morning in October and our Christmas fair in early December."
Every diagnosis of a leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma can cause pain for loved ones, but there is hope.
- Mairead Macleod, Blood Cancer UK
Blood cancer is the UK’s fifth most common cancer, and is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to funding research into all blood cancers including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma, as well as offering information and support those with a blood cancer.
Mairead Macleod, Blood Cancer UK’s, Scotland fundraising manager, said:
“Sadly every year blood cancer takes 16,000 lives away from us a year right here in the UK, making it the country’s third largest cancer killer. Every diagnosis of a leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma can cause pain for loved ones, but there is hope. Research has helped drastically improve survival outcomes for many different forms of blood cancer, and thanks to fundraisers in Scotland like the WATCH Committee, we’re able to invest into more research, which will help beat blood cancer for good.”
Last year’s campaign supported HopScotch, an Edinburgh charity providing respite breaks for some of Scotland's most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.