South Gyle animal lover Linda Lee Thomson is carrying out a Christmas drive for two charities to ensure their animals have enough food and care as the festive season approaches.
Linda is well known locally and is organising the drive for the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) and the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home (EDCH) and she carried out a similar drive last year for both charities and collected hundreds of pounds. She hopes to achieve at least the same this December
She said: “This year, I started my appeal earlier but I’ve really not had much success yet. I think this has a lot to do with people coping with the cost of living crisis.
“I am appealing for dog food because blankets and things like that are easy to source.
“It’s the food that keeps the animals alive. The charities do not have as many cats as they do dogs so I’d say dog food because that is something that will last.”
Her appeal last year began when she read about the struggles both charities were enduring as a result of the pandemic.
She explained that EDCH had to close their pet boarding service as they did not have enough revenue to keep it open as a business.
She said: “Similarly, the SSPCA had charity shops which they had to close so they’re really struggling.
“I reached out to both charities and dropped some stuff off and then round about October, I decided to start collecting for both charities to make up a Christmas hamper.
“By November, I had quite a lot and I took a picture of the hamper and put it up on the Corstorphine Facebook page, asking if anyone else wants to help to donate to the charities.”
Her Facebook notifications pinged constantly with messages and in the end, Linda managed to collect hundreds of pounds worth of items to give to the charities.
Carrying out appeals for animals isn’t the only form of charitable work that Linda does.
Earlier in the summer, she donated back packs, colouring books, drinks, pens, and toys to her son’s basketball coach who was running a humanitarian effort for Ukrainian children.
“I feel I have an obligation to do it because it’s close to my heart.
“I wish I could do more for the charities. It’s important to keep doing it because it’s making a difference.
“Individually by myself, I’m only making a small difference but by getting everybody else involved, like in the Ukrainian project, everybody’s small donation, collectively, makes a large difference.
“Someone might be thinking that they’d like to do something but what they can contribute is nothing so they’re not going to bother. But collectively, that small cat food or dog food donated creates a much bigger impact.”
Her appeals carry on throughout the year but she has noticed that the response is better over Christmas.
Linda said she does not like asking for money and keeps it strictly to donations of goods, and she is hopeful that she will be able to gather more than last year.
