‘Inspirational’ Kergord baker raises over £750 in honour of late grandad

A keen young baker from Kergord has raised around £760 for Alzheimer Scotland in honour of her late grandad with a socially distant bake sale.

Ten-year-old Eva Thompson, who said she just loves to bake, conjured up muffins, cookies and tray-bakes for two whole days with the assistance of her mother Susan to prepare for last Sunday’s bake sale at the bottom of her road.

Susan said that the extent of her help revolved around cleaning up in Eva’s wake, however, joking: “Eva’s a good baker but she’s not very good at tidying away.”

Although she said she was unsure if people would come because of the current situation, Eva sold out just over an hour after opening for business.

Susan said this week that she was “nearly greeting” when they opened their money-box to find that they had raised over £600 last Sunday for Alzheimer Scotland.

But donations have not stopped coming since the last cake was sold, with people from as far away as London donating after reading about Eva’s success on Facebook.

Eva said this week that it was two years since her grandad had passed after living with dementia, and that she had been asking her mam for a while if she could have a bake sale to raise money for a charity that Susan said was “really close to our hearts”.

“It was so lovely to have that response,” she said. Eager sweet-toothed friends came from as far as Lerwick, Cunningsburgh and Sandwick to try out Eva’s efforts and to donate to a worthy cause.

Susan said that her dad “would have been so proud” of Eva’s fundraising feat.

She said that they wanted to make people aware of the outstanding work that Alzheimer Shetland was doing locally, and help raise funds for them at a time when fund-raising was increasingly difficult. Eva now hopes to host another bake sale later in the summer, she said. Although the pair agreed that they might need to rope family and friends into donating some of their own sweet-treats as well next time, instead of spending several days stood over the stove.

Eva thanked everyone that came along and supported her by donating so generously last weekend, while her mam said that they were “really grateful and absolutely overwhelmed” by the demand at the bake sale, and with the donations afterwards too.

Ann Williamson, dementia adviser for Alzheimer Shetland, said she wanted to say “a huge thank you” to Eva for her fundraising efforts.

She said: “Her family have lived with dementia and her motivation to support Alzheimer Scotland reinforces the fact that the illness has an impact on all generations.

“Even someone as young as Eva can help make a difference – she is truly inspirational.”