| Murray Farquharson, who is deaf and blind, is well-known locally as a musician and is using his talent to raise up to £5500 that will be needed to replace vital equipment not provided on the NHS.
Murray has NHS digital hearing aids but uses them in conjunction with priv-ately funded equipment that allows him to cut down background noise, ena-bling him to chat one-to-one in Asda without the conversation being drow-ned out by babies crying, trolleys crashing and other noises that otherwise would bombard his ears.
His existing equipment is continually breaking down and requires regular replacement parts that Murray has to pay for.
His mother Aileen explained that when he investigated the cost of replacing the equipment that sends signals from a hand held device to a small part attached to his hearing aids, the figure came back as between £4500 and £5500.
Murray has already raised around £1000 and that will be topped up by today’s donations.
Aileen said she was overwhelmed by the generosity of locals who, despite the credit crunch, are digging deep in to their pockets and helping her son to reach his goal.
“People have just been so kind in coming forward when they heard of Murray’s need,” said Aileen. “It is hard these days for a lot of people but it is humbling that people will still go in their pocket and give.”
She said family haird-resser Pauline Gorthy was planning to take part in tomorrow’s Ne’er Day Dook at Broughty Ferry, part of the celebrations to mark Ye Amphibious Ancients Bathing Assoc-iation’s 125th anniversary.
Pauline and her husband Ian have been sponsored for the event and all proceeds will go to Murray for the hearing system fund. He is planning to be there to spur them on with a tune. Between the sponsorship and donations from clients, the couple have raised over £1100 to add to the fund.
Early in the new year, staff from Sense Scotland, the charity that supports Murray to live indepe-ndently in his own home, plan to have a candle party, raising cash from selling aromatic candles. |
