Wishes come true for ER Good Causes

The charity was founded by the Newton Mearns man in 2007, as a means of giving back to the community following a life-saving double transplant.

The £15,000 wish list was comprised of good deeds which ERGC hadn’t yet been able to fund, printed in The Extra in November.

Russell told The Extra: “The Extra got behind our campaign — a wish list informed by me contacting front line workers to find out what our community needed.

“We had people sending in specific amounts of money for items. We told the community that a young carer needed a laptop, and one kind reader sent us a cheque for £300.

“I’m delighted to say that thanks to our community, that wish list has been totally satisfied. That’s a fantastic effort.”

The wish list included £250 for a child who needed home adaptations in order to be discharged from hospital, £735 for an MS sufferer who neede a wheelchair power pack, and £200 to enable the mother of a young autistic child with transport to nursery.

Russell added: “A local area can be full of good people, but the connections which used to be in that community have gone in a modern world — so you need publicity at local level.

“The Extra has been phenomenal at allowing me to tap into the community and get everyone to put a wee bit of money into a pot — and that pot has helped us to help all of these people.”

Local Newspaper Week runs May 12-1, under the theme Making a Difference. See Russell chatting about the wish list campaign and the importance of a local paper to a grassroots charity campaign in our video interview (above).