IT seems for all the world like any other charity shop: small and bustling, with every last inch given over to racks of clothes and bric-a-brac. Were you so minded to try to swing a cat in here, you would find it rather difficult. Yet this shop, in the heart of Govan, has an interesting story attached to it, one that reminds you that there are many ordinary people who go to great lengths to help others. For them, such efforts are their own reward: not for them publicity, or MBEs.
In his office at the Sunny-sid3up charity shop at 982 Govan Road, Paul Feeney tells you about his brother, Chris. At first Chris was a nursing assistant at Leverndale Hospital. He then worked in the retail trade but when it dawned on him that he really wanted to be his own boss, he set up an ice-cream business in Pollok. At some point he came across a young boy with cerebral palsy. He badly needed an electric wheelchair in order to become mobile. Chris raised £2,500 to buy him one, partly through collecting empty Irn-Bru bottles. Twenty years later, the young man is doing well.
Chris was hooked on fundraising. He completed a fundraising trek of the Sahara. When he read about the Boxing Day tsunami in late 2004, his response was automatic. He decided to help people who had been affected by it. He had found his calling.
Chris worked all over the world: Haiti, Cambodia, India, Mexico, Sri Lanka. That teardrop-shaped island was where he settled. All around him was evidence of the colossal damage caused by the tsunami. He based himself in rural parts of the country where, in the rainy season, people stood shin-deep in water in their kitchens to cook. Their homes had no windows, no doors. He built a basic hospital, a basic maternity unit. He raised money to buy school uniforms for children. On his returns to Glasgow he raised funds by whatever means he could. The money paid for builders and tradesmen in Sri Lanka to lift people’s homes out of the water. Sadly, Chris died in Sri Lanka, in May 2012, suffering a heart attack on the bus taking him to the airport and another long flight home. He was just 43. He had, however, already set up a registered charity – Sunny-sid3up – and it is this that Paul is carrying on today. It has managed to complete the overseas projects that Chris began and now works closer to home.
I'd never heard of Chris until shortly before I met Paul but as I listened to him it was impossible not to admire the relentless dedication of his brother. His efforts are matched by countless others, few of whom you ever hear of. It was the kind of conversation that makes you embarrassed, even if just briefly, about your own narrow, essentially selfish daily concerns, whether it's a late-running train or the prospect of another day squinting at a computer screen. I give to charity, but sometimes I think I could do more.
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