Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

£12,000 birthday gift for Raigmore special care baby unit

Staff Midwife Sheilagh Grace, Chris Kelly, Kelly Macrae, Staff Midwife Sharon Lawrence; front Amelia Jo Kelly
Staff Midwife Sheilagh Grace, Chris Kelly, Kelly Macrae, Staff Midwife Sharon Lawrence; front Amelia Jo Kelly

A specialist care unit for babies at Raigmore Hospital has received an extraordinary donation from a grateful family.

Amelia Jo Kelly from Inverness was eight weeks premature when she was born on September 16, 2014 and had to spend the first four weeks of her life in the special care baby unit (SCBU) at Raigmore.

To celebrate Amelia’s first birthday, her family set out to raise £1,000 to donate to the unit – and ended up collecting more than £12,000 in just eight weeks.

Mother Kelly Macrae said: “We really wanted to give something back to the unit and our initial goal was to raise £1000, I can’t believe that we’re able to hand over a cheque for 12 times that.”

She explained that a number of fundraising events were held over eight weeks to raise money for the unit including a fun day, money collection at a recent Ross County game and a balloon release which represented all the babies who had been treated in SCBU.

In total these events raised £7,348 and Kelly’s friends Tony Vastano and Graham McPherson have donated £5,292 to the fund which they raised by doing a cycle trip bringing the grand total to £12,640.

Ms Macrae said: “It’s a lovely gesture from Tony and Graham, I’m incredibly grateful for their support and the support we’ve had from everyone during the fundraising campaign.

“In particular my friend Lisa Cowan whose son Zander was born on the same day as Amelia, she has been incredibly supportive.

“It seems fitting that Amelia got to present the unit with the cheque on her first birthday. I’m just so pleased we have been able to do this.”

Alison Maclean, senior charge nurse, accepted the cheque on behalf of the unit.

She said: “It was such a pleasure to see Amelia again. Many of the staff remember her from when she was a patient, and we couldn’t wait to wish her a happy birthday.

“We’re so grateful for this very generous donation and would really like to thank the Kelly family and everyone else who put in so much time and effort to fundraise this amazing amount.

“It will certainly be put to good use within the unit.”