Caithness mum in line for charity award
A CAITHNESS woman hit the headlines in the last-ever issue of the News of the World – for all the right ?reasons.
Carolyn Pierpoint (33), a native of Wick, was highlighting Brain Tumour UK, a charity for which she has raised around £17,500 since her partner was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour in 2009.
The mother to one-year-old Aiden has been nominated for charity partnership Bighearted Scotland’s charity volunteer of the year award for raising funds during exceptional circumstances.
“It’s not every day a young lass from the North of Scotland ends up in the very last edition of the News of the World,” she said.
“But if it’s made even one more person hear about Brain Tumour UK then it’s served its purpose. I just want to raise the profile of the charity so more money can go into research.”
The now-defunct paper was helping to sponsor the Bighearted Scotland Awards 2011, where a group of charities give awards for various personalities of the year.
In the final issue of the Sunday paper Carolyn’s fundraising endeavours were highlighted, including the tasteful nude calendar fundraiser in which she posed.
She told the John O’Groat Journal she and her friends are preparing for another photo shoot in the next couple of weeks in order to produce the 2012 calendar, with the proceeds once again going to Brain Tumour UK.
Carolyn was inspired to do the fundraising venture after her partner, Mark Toshney (34), collapsed at the Aberdeen engineering company Technip, where they both work, shortly after returning from holiday.
Mark was later diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour which was removed before he underwent treatment which involved chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He has since had three clear MRI scans with no signs of cancer regrowth.
“Just after his operation, that was it, I was away to do something,” said Carolyn. “I didn’t know what but I was going to help fix him.”
Since then Carolyn has run the Loch Ness 10k and the London Marathon, inspired a race night, packed bags at Tesco, been to Westminster twice to discuss with MPs getting more funding into brain tumour research, and just recently climbed Ben Nevis, all to raise funds for the charity.
She said it is “difficult” balancing her home life, job and the charity work but she “just gets on with it”.
Since deciding to raise the profile of the charity, Carolyn has received a tremendous amount of support from family, friends and businesses, especially in Caithness where her mother, Wilma Mackenzie, and family still live.
Top stories
“I’m flabbergasted at the money we’ve raised,” she said. “But even stunned by the amount of support we are getting from people.”
The charity focuses on three key areas – providing support; funding research, and raising awareness of brain tumours.
Head of fundraising Claire Glazebrook explained it relies on volunteers fundraising as it does not receive any government funding.
“Carolyn is fantastic,” she said. “Her creative fundraising is an inspiration to others and without people like her we would not be able to continue our work so we are incredibly grateful.”