Sam the Skull earns £6k for sick children
An illustrated book of a song penned by an East Kilbride pensioner more than 40 years ago has raised over £6000 for Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS).
Harry Hagan, 83, from Stewartfield, wrote a well-known Glasgow song called Sam the Skull – which was loved by all ages and popularised by Scottish folk band Gaberlunzie.
The story is centred around a cat called Sam who roams around Shettleston terrorising those he comes across.
The beloved tale was brought back to life by Arran-based artist Jill Hargan who created a colourful illustrated book with the original song lyrics after gaining permission from Gordon Menzies from Gaberlunzie and Harry Hagan himself, who nominated CHAS to benefit from any sales profits.
CHAS is Scotland’s only children’s hospice charity which provides unwavering care to babies, children and young people who have a life-shortening condition.
As well as providing specialist end-of-life care the charity also assists families in many other ways including respite stays, bereavement advice and counselling.
With two children’s hospices, Robin House in Balloch and Rachel House in Kinross, as well as a CHAS at Home team, CHAS aims to support every child and family to keep the joy alive at every step of their hardest journey.
Jill went on to sell the book across her island home of Arran where it was loved by a wide age range of people – older islanders who fondly remembered the tune as well as younger residents who sang it at nursery.
Jill was still struggling to crack the mainland of Scotland when she had a lightbulb moment of reaching out to the Crosshouse Hospital shop in Kilmarnock.
They agreed to stock the book and went on to sell hundreds of copies. Jill then managed to get Waterstones in East Kilbride and Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street to stock it and they went on to raise an incredible £3710 in just three months in 2022.
After the success of the first publication Jill decided to get another 1000 amount printed. With the help of the volunteers at Crosshouse Hospital as well as volunteers from CHAS they continued to sell the rest of the books and raised a further £2772 for the charity.
Cara Bowden, community fundraiser at CHAS said: “We couldn’t be more grateful to Jill and Harry for bringing this book to life and choosing to donate all profits to the children and families within our care.
“The book has gone on to raise an amazing £6482 in total for babies, children and young people with life-shortening conditions in Scotland, which is just incredible.”