Good causes on the up thanks to chaplain
Airport charity chooses this year’s fundraising partners
G l a s g ow Ai r p o r t ’ s Chaplain’s Charity will support a neurological cause and a vital older people’s organisation this year.
Chaplain Keith Banks and his team will be supported by staff from the airport in raising vital funds for Roar — Connections for Life.
Roar is a community- based service that really makes a difference to the elderly in Renfrewshire communities.
It improves their health, tackles isolation, hosts lunch clubs, sets up befriending and organises various classes and trips.
Keith, the airport’s chaplain since 2008, is also supporting Glasgow-based Funding Neuro, which accelerates the development of new treatments for many of the most serious neurological conditions.
He said: “Towards the end of last year, I asked my colleagues to nominate a local charity the chaplaincy team and Glasgow Airport could support in 2018.
“We received many really worthy nominations for fantastic organisations doing great work.
“It was really difficult to choose just one beneficiary charity, so we decided to pick two — one from Renfrewshire and another from Glasgow, given the airport’s close links with both areas.
“Funding Neuro and Roar are two local charities providing different, yet incredibly worthwhile services, and I am determined to ensure the airport makes a significant contribution to support their fine work this year.”
Last year, the airport’s chaplaincy raised more than £7,600 for British Heart Foundation Scotland and Keith and the chaplaincy team is hopeful this record sum can be matched, if not bettered, in 2018.
Introduced by Keith in 2010, the Chaplain’s Charity has raised more than £40,000 for a number of organisations, including The Teddy Bear Foundation, CHAS, Robin House Children’s Hospice, Teenage Cancer Trust, The Salvation Army, Wish upon a Star and Make a Wish.
He added: “As always, I’m very grateful to my colleagues across the airport and, of course, our incredibly generous passengers who help raise these vital funds each year.”
Funding Neuro was founded by Bryn Williams, who himself has Parkinson’s disease, to help fund research and pioneering treatment for devastating neurological conditions including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Motor Neurone Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and brain tumours prevalent in children.
The charity, based in North Street, Glasgow, took the unusual step in 2015 to set up a crowdfunding page to raise £900,000 to finance a clinical trial to treat 18 children with deadly Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma brain tumours.
Roar, which recently relocated from Underwood Lane, in Paisley, to Glasgow Road, provides preventative health and wellbeing services for older people and helps reduce social isolation and loneliness.
The cha r i t y p rov i d e s opportunities to help older people stay as mobile as they can, reducing their risk of falls and encouraging them to socialise in various leisure activities.
General manager Nicola Hanssen said: “Support from the Chaplain’s Charity will enable us to expand our services even further in Renfrewshire in 2018.
“For example, through the generosity of Glasgow Airport staff and passengers, we’ll be able to expand our falls preventions and companionship services, which are invaluable to many of our elderly service users who perhaps have mobility issues, poor social networks and are at risk of loneliness and depression.”
Sharon Kane, Funding Neuro’s chief executive, added: “We are thrilled Keith and his team have chosen to support Funding Neuro.”
To find out more about the work of both charities, visit www. fundingneuro. com, or www. roarforlife.org
If you’d like to support the Glasgow Airport Chaplain’s Charity in 2018, contact chaplaincy@ glasgowairport.com
Through the generosity of the airport, we’ll expand our services Nicola Hanssen