Our fundraising team were excited to attend the first live event in over 18 months! Our Fundraising and Volunteer Coordinator Linzi tells us more about John Ferguson’s Tractor Run that raised over £15,000 to support the work of our charity!!!!!

I love my job in fundraising, especially getting out and about, meeting families and supporters, and attending events organised in aid of Epilepsy Scotland. This has all changed over the last 18 months, with all of our events postponed or cancelled, we have been working from a desk a lot more and supporting fundraisers virtually.

When John invited me to his tractor run at the beginning of August, I couldn’t wait to go along to support him and meet people face-to-face again!

John sadly lost his wife Lorraine in 2019. Lorraine lived with epilepsy and John spent many years witnessing the effects her seizures had.

He decided that he wanted to organise a tractor run in her memory, which would allow him to raise money to help others with epilepsy receive vital support. He made contact with our fundraising team and we chatted through his ideas.

Community fundraising

I spent the next few weeks in awe as John personally spoke to every business and contact in the area to ask for donations and they came flooding in. On the day, the community support absolutely blew me away!

There were donations of tea, coffee, homemade cakes, sandwiches, soup, so many raffle prizes, ice cream, volunteers giving up their time to name a few. The streets were lined to watch all 157, yes 157(!) tractors begin their run.

After months of missing our community events, it felt so nice to be able to witness the enthusiasm, support, and community spirit! I was lost for words and it reminded me why I love this part of my job so much.

John’s Tractor Run raised over £15,000!!!! This is phenomenal! John worked so hard to create such a lovely event in memory of his wife, he had the full community behind him and it was so special to be a part of it. We really hope he is proud of what he achieved. Thank you to everyone involved!

I can’t wait to attend more events and support people on their fundraising journey. If you would like to organise a fundraising event in your community, we would love to hear from you. Get in touch with us today fundraising@epilepsyscotland.org.uk