A GLASGOW cabbie has raised thousands for Parkinson's UK through organising a gig in a local social club.
Andrew Monaghan, 43, wanted to do something in memory of his mother Barbara, who died in 2019 after a 14-year battle with Parkinson's.
After covid restrictions began to be lifted, Andrew started making arrangements with the city's Rolls Royce Social Club and for Men of Motown to perform.
Andrew said: "When mum passed away, I said to my wife Phyllis I would like to raise awareness and money to help fight this horrible condition.
"If I can help just one person have a bit longer with a loved one, I would be over the moon. I started to investigate how I would go about doing it, then the pandemic hit and I had to put it on the back burner."
He added: "So, when the restrictions got lifted in November 2021, I decided that I was going to push on with the event, I contacted Rolls Royce club, Men of Motown.
"My wife and I did the planning in a joint effort but she did all the graft!
"We started writing more letters back in January to ask for donations for the raffle and Jan Mattison from Parkinson’s UK helped out with banners, balloons and wristbands.
“Carol from KM Creations helped out with the decoration and donated balloons and a welcome sign.
"The build-up to the event was chaotic but it was a great night. The band, Men of Motown, were fantastic."
READ MORE: 'Something had to change': Simon Ferry on juggling football and Royal Mail nightshift
He raised £3,000 through ticket sales and donations before bringing in a further £1,500 on the night with a raffle, wristband sales and a bucket collection.
Andrew added: "We'd raised £3,000 in ticket sales and all in we raised £4,500 after our raffle and a bucket collection. We'd bought some wristbands from Parkinson's UK and sold the lot of them!"
READ MORE: Popular Glasgow restaurant wins best Indian in Scotland
Jan Mattison, Regional Fundraiser for West of Scotland, said: “We were delighted that Andrew decided to put on such a great event on behalf of Parkinson’s UK.
"The event was completely sold out well in advance and it was great to see people so generous on the evening.”
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here