News / CLAN housekeeper’s 70th birthday challenge
ONE OF the housekeepers at CLAN Haven in Aberdeen is visiting Shetland next month on a fundraising mission in the year of her seventieth birthday.
Jan Livingstone will enter her eighth decade in October and decided to set herself an extensive 70 challenges to achieve during the year.
Those challenges include a “Shetland seven” which she hopes to tick off the list during a short visit to the islands between 19 and 23 May.
Livingstone has worked at CLAN Haven for seven and a half years, during which time she has become well acquainted with many of the Shetlanders who use its accommodation.
The charity’s facilities are available to patients – along with their family and friends – who travel to Aberdeen to receive radiotherapy and other cancer-related treatment.
“I am turning a fabulous 70 in October and wanted to do something to mark the occasion,” she said. “I don’t want gifts or anything for my birthday, but I thought this would be a good way of putting something back.”
She will be joined on the trip by another of CLAN Haven’s full time housekeepers, Maggi Stannard. Both have seen at first hand just how important the charity’s accommodation is to islanders receiving treatment for cancer.
“We’re on the residential side and people come down and stay with us from Orkney and Shetland while they have their radiotherapy,” Livingstone said.
“[Their stays] are sometimes for a week up to seven and a half weeks, but we get to know them. Once they leave, very rarely do we see them unless they come back down for appointments.”
Among the activities she has planned are a trip from Brae to Lerwick on board the Swan, a helicopter winch, visits to Mousa Broach, Sullom Voe Oil Terminal, Valhalla Brewery and the Muckle Flugga lighthouse.
She also intends to plant a tree in Shetland and receive lessons in weaving and knitting, the latter from the world’s fastest knitter Hazel Tindall.
A cheese and wine night at Lerwick Boating Club on 21 May, including a fundraising raffle, will offer the chance to catch up with some of the islanders who have used CLAN.
“So many people had asked about popping in to see them, but because we’re only there for four days and people are wide-flung, we didn’t think we’d manage to see everybody – this way they can come and see us,” Livingstone said.
CLAN’s £3 million headquarters on Westburn Road in Aberdeen opened in November 2011. The charity’s management spoke of being “overwhelmed” by the generosity of the Shetland community, which clubbed together to raise in excess of £700,000 towards the cost.
• You can donate to Jan Livingstone’s fundraising efforts, the proceeds of which will go to CLAN Cancer Support and a new children’s charity, Charlie’s House, at www.justgiving.com/teams/Jan-Livingstone-70
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