Easdale Brothers Give £30,000 To Help Families of Children in Hospital
James Easdale, director of McGill’s Buses speaking at the annual fundraising ball, with, left, Sandy Easdale, and Bernard Ponsonby, trustee, Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity
Greenock businessmen James and Sandy Easdale have given £30,000 towards the work of Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.
The donation was made during the charity’s annual fundraising ball at the Hilton Glasgow, making the brothers the largest donors of the evening.
The gift brings to £130,000 the amount given to the charity by the Easdales in recent years.
During the ball, £234,000 was raised by guests, all of which will go towards Crossbasket House which provides on-site accommodation and wraparound support services to families of children undergoing treatment.
Sandy Easdale, director of McGill’s Buses; David Kennedy, chair, Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity; Gail Thomson, vice-chair, Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity; James Easdale, director of McGill’s Buses
Crossbasket House, which recently became part of Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, keeps families together by providing parents and carers with accommodation at the children’s hospital in Glasgow. It is a lifeline for around 500 families each year, many of whom live hundreds of miles away from the hospital and may otherwise find it difficult to stay close to their child’s bedside.
James Easdale said: “We are proud to be legacy partners to the charity. We’ve been involved for around 14 years now. We have visited the hospital many times and I can honestly say the work they do is amazing –- the films and video clips which they show you can only convey a small snippet of how incredible the care really is. It’s heart-breaking but wonderful at the same time.
“During the evening. I asked the guests to dig deep and pledge as much as they could to this fantastic charity. It’s great to see such a huge amount was raised.”
Sandy Easdale said: “We have a longstanding relationship with Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity. We are honoured to be able to support their latest fundraising efforts for Crossbasket House which is focused on providing families with a place to stay when their children are undergoing treatment.”
The charity’s chairman David Kennedy said: “We would like to thank the Easdale brothers for their very generous donation which will support us in providing a ‘home away from home’ for the families of children receiving care at the hospital, which could be for weeks or months at a time. These funds are vital to help us make an unbelievably difficult time in people’s lives that little bit easier.”
In addition to their generous donations, the Easdales’s bus company, McGill’s Group, makes its state-of-the-art fleet available free so that children attending the hospital can go on special trips and outings facilitated by the charity.
This article & image appeared in Inverclyde Now.