Teen hands over cash raised for dream trip to Dr Gray's Hospital after Covid-19 halts adventure
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A 16-YEAR-OLD Elgin pupil has handed over cash raised for a Central American eco-adventure to a Moray hospital after Covid-19 dashed his dream.
Fraser Sandison, a sixth-year pupil at Elgin Academy, should have spent a month this summer rescuing turtles and replanting deforested sites in Costa Rica on a once-in-a-lifetime school trip which had been two years in the planning.
The big-hearted teen decided to hand over £250 he had made through his paper round and coffee mornings to Elgin's Friends of Dr Gray's Hospital when the group of around 40 pupils were forced to accept the June trip was off.
They had been looking forward to spending 28 days working on all manner of projects including helping at a women's refuge, an animal sanctuary, rainforest butterfly counts and turtle conservation, as well as adventure fun such as white-water rafting and some time in San José.
The pupils had also been set for a training weekend in Crieff, Perthshire, ahead of the main trip, but this was also cancelled.
Fraser said he felt it wasn't right to keep the money he'd worked hard to fundraise. He had learned more about the aims of the Friends of Dr Gray's in 2018, when he played a part in a Grampian Arts project, The Tide Brings And The Tide Takes, filmed at Dr Gray's by production company wildbird.
Though gutted by the call-off, Fraser said he felt good about handing the money over to the cause.
He said: "We were all getting excited, planning for the training weekend, and then we got told we had to cancel it. When we heard that we still thought we'd be able to go to Costa Rica. But when the whole lockdown came it was like 'yeah ... we're not going'.
"I'd fundraised all my money by then by doing my papers and coffee mornings. Some people probably cried. I'm not the best at crying – so I just went out on my bike to calm down when I heard the news.
"If we had gone to Costa Rica we'd probably have been still telling stories about it to this day.
"But I got over it. I'm happy I've given this money to the NHS. My dad works at Dr Gray's and I know it's needed to help patients."
Dr Ken Brown, a Friends committee member and retired consultant radiographer, said: "We're delighted with this generous gesture from Fraser. It will help us towards our goal of improving the lot of patients and staff in the hospital.
"We've already got enough money for the hospital clock but there are a lot of other things we're going to be doing in the years to come so the money will go towards the general good.
"It's very good of Fraser to do this for us – he could have spent the money on a lot of other things."
Fraser and some friends are now planning a lads' holiday once they finish school next summer.
