Dundee’s mystery Santa Claus, Audrey Balfour, who raised thousands of pounds for a cancer charity, has died aged 86.
She spent years travelling the city on her mobility scooter dressed as Santa collecting for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Audrey, whose charity work was motivated by the loss of two children to cancer and battling it herself, did her work incognito.
Unveiled
It was only when an appeal was made in the Evening Telegraph to identify her that Audrey stepped into the limelight.
Her son, Mike, said her final donation to Macmillan was made just weeks before she died.
Mike does not know exactly how much his mother raised but it is confident it is well into the thousands of pounds.
Joy
When she was interviewed in 2019, Audrey told us: “It cheers people up. The kids ae mesmerised when they see the scooter decorated.
“I enjoy it. It makes me feel as if I am doing something useful. I like to put a smile on people’s faces. The public has been vey generous in donating.”
Audrey was also generous with her own money, saving spare cash in a jar to donate to the charity.
Early years
She was born in St Andrews to labourer Thomas Balfour and his wife Alice.
When she was 12 the family moved to Dundee. Audrey spent her working life on farms in Perthshire and Angus, lived in Dundee for several years before settling in Blairgowrie. She moved to live in Lochee in the early 1990s.
She remained there until her move to Stirling Court sheltered housing, Hilltown.
In the 1960s, Audrey won the Mrs Dundee title staged by the Green’s Playhouse.
Social life
In later years she would regularly visit the playhouse in Nethergate in its later incarnation as a bingo hall.
She lost her eldest son, Alex, to bowel cancer in 2011 and daughter Trisha Balfour to stomach cancer three years later.
Her other two children are Brian and Michael.
Audrey’s funeral will take place at Dundee crematorium on April 6 at 11.30am.