| Anne McGill was dejected when she spoke to the Tele today, after watching a former colleague led away in handcuffs after admitting fraud at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday.
She said she was “totally sickened” by the actions of Tony Freeman, a man, she said, she had trusted to take forward her grand plan to raise a further £5 million for breast cancer research at Ninewells.
Mrs McGill started raising cash for breast cancer after a close friend died of the disease. The operation, run from the front room of her council house in Ayrshire, was a runaway success and she became a regular visitor to Dundee handing over massive cheques to city researchers.
After handing over a total of £1 million, she was persuaded to put the charity on a more “professional” footing.
She brought in professional fund-raiser Freeman, who was sent to jail to await sentence yesterday. He cut a deal that involved his company taking a slice of the money raised.
Some of those closest to Mrs McGill believe she was naive in her business dealings and gave away too much control. That’s a view she now accepts.
Mrs McGill said, “I was definitely taken in. I made a lot of mistakes. Obviously, if I could turn back the clock, I would. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time.”
She believes she was “hung out to dry” when problems emerged with nobody prepared to back her publicly.
The charity, Breast Cancer Research Scotland, was closed down and a judicial factor brought in to track down cash after it emerged only a very small portion of the many millions raised for charity through Freeman’s company actually made its way to good causes.
Earlier this summer, the Court of Session ruled that £1.5 million should be handed over to Dundee University following a probe in to the scandal-hit charity’s finances.
“We had a good thing,” said Mrs McGill. “It’s hard to think somebody can come along and ruin what you do for their own ends.
“It totally sickens me. I would never get involved in anything like this again.”
Her life has been on hold with the court case pending. She was expecting to be called as a witness in the trial of her former colleague, but Freeman short-circuited events with yesterday’s guilty plea.
“I just want it to be over. It totally sickens me but I have to get on with my life.
“I have to move on. I could not move on with all this happening. I just wish I had never met him.” |
