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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
Holly Lennon

Renfrewshire charity celebrating helping 6,000 people in memory of organ donor

A Renfrewshire charity is celebrating after hitting an impressive milestone by helping over 6,000 people in memory of an organ donor.

East Renfrewshire Good Causes was set up in 2007 by registered blind man Russell Macmillan from Newton Mearns.

The then 42-year-old had just undergone a successful pancreas/kidney transplant that cured both his kidney failure along with his insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes.

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Russell vowed to carry out acts of kindness in memory of the incredibly generous but unknown donor.

Among the acts of kindness was helping to provide a key safe to allow the hospital discharge of a vulnerable adult with mental health issues to enable their support workers to gain access to the flat, paying for a short-term cleaner to help the family of a parent with MND and a child with additional support needs and helping buy a mobility scooter for a frail housebound pensioner to help them regain independence.

The charity's Our Love Your Neighbour Club East Renfrewshire has also given out £4,224 in purchased goods and donated items which will have helped over 340 individuals over this six-month period.

Russell said: "The idea that over 6000+ individual neighbours have been helped by the thousands of acts of kindness can only be described as a modern-day miracle.

"I personally have a strong Christian faith so for me having two organs living on inside me, being guided by my faith is just incredulous.

"Every person the organs have helped has been referred to us by frontline workers from both the state and third sector with examples being teachers, police, housing, health and social workers to name just a few of our community's unsung heroes.

"Without these dedicated professionals bringing cases to us, we would have struggled to identify the best way for us to Love Our Neighbours in a modern setting."

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