Buckie family in charity cash plea
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A BUCKIE family have issued a heartfelt plea for money raised by the local community for their 10-year-old son to be released by the charity they say is holding the cash.
September 2017 saw Cumbernauld-based charity Bumblebee Babies hold a fund-raiser based at the Buckie Tesco store for Adam Smith, then aged eight, who has the rare genetic disorder Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), symptoms of which include hypermobility of his joints, pain, tiredness and anxiety.
Some £1200 was raised thanks to the generous support of both Buckie Tesco staff and the local community to go towards a special measured-to-fit car seat which would give Adam more support and make journeys more comfortable.
The cash, which turned out to fall short of the amount required to purchase the seat, was handed over to Bumblebee Babies by Tesco. As it was a targeted appeal for a named individual, the fund-raiser was classed as a failed appeal. However, the regulations governing this type of situation state that, following discussion with the charity concerned, the money can be used for another purpose providing it is for the sole benefit of person named.
It was when the Smith family tried to retrieve the money that the problems began, said Adam's dad Kevin.
He told the Advertiser: "We went to Tesco to in February 2018 and they said they'd paid the cash to Bumblebee Babies in December, although it wasn't enough to pay for the car seat.
"It was after that Bumblebee Babies basically stopped speaking to us, they've blanked us.
"In April last year my wife, Anne, was very ill with the flesh eating bug necrotising fasciitis and at one stage was given 24 hours to live. This really affected Adam and we went to Tesco to ask if they were OK with us taking Adam on holiday to Legoland. They told us that using the money for something other than the car seat was fine so long as it was for Adam.
"Bumblebee Babies have said they won't release the money for the trip, that it's only for the car seat."
Mr Smith said the family were introduced to the charity's boss Brenda Murray when on holiday at a caravan site in Saltcoats, Ayrshire. He stated that she went on to offer to fund-raise for Adam.
"This is something we never pushed, Brenda approached us to raise money and followed it up once we returned home from holiday," he continued.
"What makes this all the more annoying is that we're not the sort of folk who go around fund-raising for this, that and everything for Adam – generally we pay for things ourselves and get on with it."
With no immediate sign of the impasse being broken after two years, Mr Smith said that the family did not want the money back to pay for the trip and were quite happy for it to go to help the wider community.
"Ideally, we'd like to hear from Bumblebee Babies and work things out.
"We're two years down the line now and no money; people are asking us if we've managed to get something for Adam and what's happened to the money. When you tell people we still haven't seen any of the money after two years, it makes them doubt you, it reflects badly on us even though we've done absolutely nothing wrong.
"At the end of the day, this isn't our money, it belongs to all those people who kindly donated. We'd be quite happy for Bumblebee Babies to give the £1200 back to Tesco or an appropriate third party and have it used to benefit the local community.
"We don't need this battle, especially when you're dealing with unwell kids and ill health in the family.
"Most of all, we don't want this to happen to anybody else."
The Advertiser made numerous attempts to contact Bumblebee Babies and Ms Murray for comment, but at the time of going to print had not received a reply.
Moray MP Douglas Ross has been working to try and broker a solution to the stalemate between the Smith family and Bumblebee Babies.
He commented: "Both myself and the family have made repeated attempts to speak with the charity, but they have not been responsive.
“I’ve written directly to Brenda Murray three times and while she phoned the office twice in response and said she would contact me directly with a response, this never happened.
“I recently contacted the Charities Commission who replied to say that they have told Brenda Murray she must reply to me but to date, this has never happened and clearly the family are still without this money.
“We need to know why this money hasn’t been handed over. Local people who donated for this good cause deserve to know and the money should be passed on as promised.”
