Highlands and Islands MSP, Edward Mountain, celebrated the fundraising efforts of Margaret Payne during Tuesday’s Holyrood debate on communities.
Edward Mountain MSP said in his speech “We should never overlook that Highlanders and Islanders are known, above anyone else in Scotland, for their generosity. Take a 90-year-old Margaret Payne from Ardvar, who is climbing the height of Suilven by negotiating 282 trips up the stairs of her Sutherland home.”
“She has forty flights of stairs to go before she reaches the summit. The £340,000 she has raised will be a lifeline for Highland Hospice and the RNLI.”
Edward Mountain MSP continued: “This is just one of the fundraising initiatives in the Highlands and I would like to pay tribute to all fundraisers. I know local charities and trusts are hugely grateful for these funds at a time when their incomes have fallen.”
This is not the first time Margaret Payne’s efforts have been recognised at the Scottish Parliament.
In April, Edward Mountain MSP also lodged the following motion, which received cross-party support:
“That the Parliament congratulates Margaret Payne, who is 90 and from Ardvar, on raising more than £20,000 for the NHS and Highland Hospice; notes that Margaret has set a target of reaching the equivalent of the 2,398 ft peak of Suilven by climbing the staircase at her home 282 times over the next two months; notes that she first climbed Suilven in 1944 aged 15 with her sister, and wishes Margaret every success in her endeavours.”
