French Duncan raise over £10k for Brightest Star

Scottish accountancy firm French Duncan has raised more than £10,500 for a Paisley charity by undertaking a series of fundraising events.

The Glasgow-headquartered firm selected Brightest Star as its charity partner for 2016 and over the past 12 months, more than 200 staff across the business’s five offices in Glasgow, Stirling, Edinburgh, Dumbarton and Hamilton, have rallied together to raise funds for the worthy cause.

Brightest Star was set up by Renfrew mum Arlene Clark, whose son, Jack Kennedy, died in December 2012 just days before his sixth birthday after a virus stopped his heart.

The charity campaigns to raise awareness and funds to help other people save children’s lives and to support bereaved families.

Throughout the year, staff at French Duncan have taken part in a variety of fundraising activities for the charity including fun runs, bake sales and raffles.

In April, 17 staff took part in the Glasgow Kiltwalk which saw the organisation raise close to £2,000.

The business also organised a pub quiz at Glasgow’s Grand Central Hotel in June - an event which was attended by more than 180 people from companies across the city, including Clydesdale Bank, Bank of Scotland and MacRoberts.

Other events included a dress-up Halloween party and a summer barbeque.

Graeme Finnie, managing partner at French Duncan and himself a Renfrewshire resident, visited the charity’s headquarters in November to hand over a cheque for £10,502.32.

He said: “Brightest Star is a fantastic and extremely worthy organisation and it has been a privilege to help raise funds for the charity over the past year. Arlene works incredibly hard to raise awareness of the charity’s cause in order to help other parents who are suffering from the loss of a child. Giving back to charity is a key part of French Duncan’s activity and we look forward to unveiling our 2017 charity partner, which is selected by our staff, very soon.“

Director of Brightest Star, Arlene Clark, said: “I think it’s fantastic that French Duncan give this opportunity to small charities and I can’t thank them enough for choosing brightest star as their 2016 charity partner.

“Their staff work so hard throughout the year to raise not just funds but also awareness for brightest star and I think it’s truly amazing that people go to all this effort on top of their own workload.

“I am still in shock at the amount that French Duncan has raised in only one year and I can’t thank them enough. This money will allow us to support so many more families that suffer from the death of a child.”