A north-east charity shop that supports people with cancer has been forced to put out a plea asking vandals to stop destroying its stock and throwing it into the River Dee.
Clan Cancer Support’s store in Ballater has an outside storage unit that houses clothes, glassware and other stock that it sells to pay for free help and advice for patients and their families across the north of Scotland.
However, the shed has been targeted by vandals, who last week broke into it and threw some of its contents across the neighbouring path and into the nearby River Dee.
It was the latest in a series of attacks on the unit.
Last night, Gemma Powell, Clan’s Aberdeenshire area service co-ordinator, said: “The storage facility behind our Ballater charity shop is used to house a range of materials that get recycled to raise funds for Clan.
“It may sound small but this is a valuable contribution to the shop’s weekly income so it is incredibly disappointing that it keeps on being targeted in the way it is.
“The shed stores a wide range of items – from boxes of china and glass to clothes – and a number of these have been intentionally destroyed, which means we cannot recycle them and receive any money.
“This has happened several times in the last year or two and we actually found a lighter when we were tidying up the mess, so it could have been worse if someone had started a fire.
“Clan in Ballater relies heavily on the work of a group of volunteers, whose time is incredibly valuable to the charity. For them to have to spend some of this time helping clear up after the actions of mindless vandals is really frustrating.
“We’re really appealing to whoever is doing this to think before they act next time as their actions are affecting a wide number of people associated with Clan in Ballater.”
Based in Aberdeen, Clan provides support to the whole of he north-east of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland.