Sisters Evie and Millie Stewart, from Chapelknowe, and their cousins Olivia and Oscar Boyd, who live in Eastriggs, are creating dozens of hand drawn rainbow pictures in exchange for donations to Dumfries and Galloway Health Board Endowment Fund.
And the fab four have managed to raise almost £1500 in the space of just ten days, with all the money raised going to support NHS staff during the coronavirus pandemic.
Their effort has been dubbed Alana’s NHS Rainbows in tribute to Alana Carruthers, mum to Olivia and Oscar and auntie to Evie and Millie, who is a community nurse currently working in Lower Annandale.
Explaining more, Alana’s mum Nicola said: “As a family we decided to try and do something for the fantastic and, at times, thankless work that our NHS staff are putting themselves through in these terrible times.
“Alana, our daughter, is an NHS nurse in Annan and our son James is a doctor, so hearing their stories prompted us to do this.
“I think we all know someone locally working for the NHS.”
As well as creating their own designs, the family hope to encourage as many children across the region as they can to share their rainbow pictures with friends and neighbours and encourage them to donate to the fund.
Nicola continued: “I think most kids are creating rainbows anyway so I’m sure their families would rather donate to receive one from a child they know.
“We received a really nice unprompted letter from NHS Dumfries and Galloway thanking us for our efforts and advising that all monies raised will be used locally towards the NHS corona cause.
“We would love to see a rainbow in everybody’s window throughout Dumfries and Galloway to show our collective appreciation for our own local NHS heroes.”
All designs that are sent in to Alana’s NHS Rainbows will be shared on a dedicated Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NHSRainbows.
Donations can be made at www.justgiving.com/
