An Aberdeen woman is continuing her mum’s legacy by donating more than 350 gifts to this year’s VSA Christmas appeal.
Amy Strath, from Cove, is supporting the social care charity in memory of her mum, Janice Strath, who died in September.
Before her death, the 54-year-old had been collecting items for festive goody bags to help support a different local charity every year.
Her daughter came across “heaps of bags” in the loft and decided to make sure VSA received the gifts as her mum intended.
“I remember her making the bags every Christmas,” the 26-year-old said. “She had started collecting things in August, finding all these deals, so I took them down and spoke to my dad about honouring her.
“My mum would donate all these things to charity every year but she’d always just say it was from Boots Garthdee – she’d never take any of the credit. I now realise all of the stuff she did, she was so kind and generous.”
An annual giving campaign
The personal trainer, who also plays for the Montrose Ladies football team, hopes to make the gifting campaign an annual event – named “Jan’s Christmas Goodie Bags” in memory of her mum.
“Every year we’re going to keep it going and hopefully help as many people as possible,” she said.
“I’m so grateful I’ve had the chance to do this because it’s really helped me. My mum adored Christmas. She had so many traditions and this helped me feel closer to her and carry on something she loved doing.”
Miss Strath spent hours making up between 350 and 400 bags with her friend, Savanna Gerrard, and has delivered them to VSA over the past couple of weeks.
“It felt good to help,” she said. “We actually ran out of gift bags, so we had to donate the rest of the stuff we had. It would have probably filled another 100 bags on top of that.
“But we couldn’t have done it without all the generous donations. We thought a lot of people would like to help build this legacy, and help as many people as possible, so we took it to social media.
“A lot of people knew my mum from Boots Garthdee. She was a character – you could hear her before you could see her – and was just lovely. People would come in panic shopping and she’d be the one who’d work it all out for them.
“So, the post just blew up. Everyone was sharing it, I got messages from people, companies, friends in America, and we ended up getting over £2,000 in donations.”
Making a difference
The bags feature items for all ages, including stationery, festive treats, toiletries, books and games.
They will be distributed by VSA with some being donated to the children’s hospital in Aberdeen.
John Booth, acting chief executive for VSA, said all of the staff across the service were touched by Miss Strath’s generosity.
He said: “We are truly thankful to Amy for supporting VSA in this way. She is going to make a real difference for the many people we support this Christmas.
“We also wanted to thank Amy for sharing her story with us when this is clearly a very difficult time for her family. Janice will always be remembered by everyone at VSA.”
Conversation