Readers rallied to raise £4m

WHEN little Suzanne Sutherland’s desperate plight made the Daily Record front page in 1993, it moved the nation.

Her fight with a rare degenerative condition that was crippling her nervous system inspired people across Scotland – and exposed the need for a hospice to provide care and support for terminally ill young people.

Suzanne’s story was brought to us by Scots parents with gravely ill kids who were forced to travel hundreds of miles to Martin House in Yorkshire.

Jack and Nancy Blaik, Lorraine Dickson and Susan and Jim Green, had been trekking across the Border to seek care and respite as they looked after their children. And they wanted Scotland to come together and build a hospice of our own.

In September 1991, the couples held their first public meeting and a year later their group became a charity – named CHAS.

Championed by the Record, a campaign was launched to create a refuge for Scotland’s sickest youngsters, a beacon of hope and joy that would create lasting memories for children and their families.

Our incredible readers raised an astonishing £4million in just 437 days.

It led to the creation of Rachel House in Kinross, Scotland’s first children’s hospice.

Robin House in Balloch followed in 2005 and the charity have grown to provide outreach services at homes, as well as special neonatal services in maternity hospitals.