A brave group of seven car salesmen and a “random guy in the pub” raised £2600 in a bid to send a set of Carnoustie twins to the US for life-changing surgery by having themselves waxed at the town’s All Stars bar.
The event was organised by senior salesman Iain McAdam, who is based at the Balfield Road branch Arnold Clark in Dundee, after two-year-old Ayley and Chloe Hirsch’s mother Averil Fleming appealed to the local community for fund-raising ideas.
The girls suffer from cerebral palsy and face life in a wheelchair unless Averil and her partner Frazer can raise the £80,000 needed to have an extremely complex procedure not available on the NHS carried out by a leading surgeon in Missouri.
Iain, who lives close to the family in Carnoustie, said he and his colleagues had been “screaming inside” at the thought of having the treatment performed publicly but were willing to push through the pain barrier to raise money for a good cause.
For a donation of £5, people were able to inflict further misery on the men by tearing their own strips from the group’s chests, legs and backs.
The participants themselves have raised at least £1500 in sponsorship, while Arnold Clark has kindly donated £1000.
And, as Averil revealed on the fund-raising campaign’s Facebook page, “a random guy” who was in the pub also volunteered to join the pain game and raised a further £120.
Iain said, “We’ve been psyching ourselves up to this for quite a while but it’s all been worth it. It’s a really heartfelt story and, as a parent, you always want the best for your kids.
“Carnoustie’s a really close-knit community and when Averil was asking people for ideas I thought this would be something we could do.
“It’s also a really good social event. Although we work together a lot, we don’t often get the chance to come out and enjoy ourselves so it’s a good idea from that point of view, too.”Find out more at www.facebook.com/helpayleyandchloewalk