Charity’s two new projects

ONE of Fife’s leading child r e n ’s c h a r i t i e s h a s launched two new projects thanks to a £100,000 community fundraising drive.

The Cottage Family Centre in Kirkcaldy has announced it will run a specialist support service for grandparents who unexpectedly find themselves having to bring up their grandchildren.

It will begin next month and run alongside a new mental health project for teenagers and their families. Both services were announced as the charity celebrated the appointment of f ormer Prime Minister Gordon Brown as its patron.

The former Kirkcaldy MP helped the Cottage raise £100,000 with the support of t he public, businesses and other organisations.

Mr Brown, who has been a supporter of the charity for more than 20 years, was on hand t o help launch the mental health project that will lead to the centre employing its own mental health workforce to ease waiting lists of up to nine months f or NHS services.

Claire Hamilton, 33, from Craigie, was left in excruciating pain after taking a fall outside the stadium following the final whistle of Saturday’s match.

She attended the game with her eight-year-old daughter Paige.

Although Claire is a Rangers fan, she was in the away support’s end as daughter Paige is an avid Dundee supporter.

Claire, who works at a butcher’s shop, said: “After the match, we were walking out of Ibrox when some Rangers fans started shouting abuse at us.

“Paige became really frightened so I picked her up and started to carry her to try to calm her down a bit.

“While I was lifting her up, I didn’t notice the step that was beside us and tumbled down it.

“As I had Paige in my arms, we landed on top of each other.”

Although Paige fell with her mum, she came away with only a small bruise on her back.

Claire not only suffered a broken ankle but also fainted directly after the accident.

She said: “Straight after the fall I tried to move, but I fainted.

“I woke up outside Ibrox wondering what was going on.”

Members of the stewarding team and the police saw what happened and rushed to Claire’s aid, before getting her back inside the stadium.

She was then taken to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Govan where she was treated for her injury.

Claire said: “The treatment at Ibrox

A DUNDEE mum and Rangers supporter fell over and broke her ankle while leaving Ibrox, after receiving abuse from fans of her own team.