Icing on the cake
Baker raises charity cash
A Rutherglen woman had sweet success recently - after earning thousands of pounds for a good cause by baking cakes.
Earlier this year Lisa Ross received devastating news when she learned her dad Ian had been diagnosed with cancer.
The 56-year-old found a tumour in his nose and also in his liver, leaving his family stunned.
Lisa, who runs her own business Lisa Makes Cakes, decided she wanted to help MacMillan Cancer Support, who have provided assistance to her father since he was diagnosed last December.
She started making cakes to sell at her pal Alexis Vincent’s cafe, Vin18, and hoped to raise around £1000.
However support for the good cause flooded in, from across Rutherglen, with queues forming downWoodside Avenue in advance of the sale, which took place early evening and was on a takeaway basis to comply with current Covid-19 guidelines.
Lisa explained: “I’m a baker so a bake sale seemed a good idea as I didn’t fancy getting my head shaved!
“I know Alexis and I’ve sometimes worked at Vin 18 before, so she was happy to help out and have the sale there.
“We weren’t really sure what to expect, we hadn’t gone overboard advertising it or anything, so we were hoping that our friends would be there and there’d be word of mouth.
“But there were so many people there, we couldn’t believe it. There was a queue down the street before we even opened and people were being so generous, handing over donations.
“Me and Alexis had thought a grand would be amazing and that would be the most we could expect, but when we saw the folk there we were wondering if we had enough for everybody!
“Luckily we did, and a lot of small businesses had helped too, giving us prizes for the raffle we had. We were really grateful to everyone who helped us out and we’ve ended up with around £3000.”
Lisa added that she was pleased to help MacMillan after all the support they have provided during a terrible time for her family.
She explained: “It was a massive shock when we found out, because my dad’s always been one of those people who is fine all the time and never has anything wrong with him.
“He wasn’t feeling great before Christmas and went to the doctor. When he went back a second time they ran some tests and discovered there was a tumour in his nose, and we later found out he has cancer in his liver.
“It’s been really tough, although if you saw him in the street you would think he was fine. MacMillan and their nurses have been great, really helpful, and my dad was keen to do something for them, which is when I started thinking about the bake sale.”
Visit www.macmillan.org.uk for more details on the work of MacMillan.