The first Cancer Research Campaign shop in Galashiels and the UK

Image: © Walter Baxter Taken: Unknown

This photo shows my mother at the shop entrance in Island Street that she opened for the Campaign with my father on 5th December 1981. They had owned and ran a ladies and gents outfitters shop in the town and set up this shop by raising £92, obtaining a borrowed till and a £10 float. They relied on public donations of clothes, shoes, toys and bric-a-brac and were helped by a dedicated support of voluntary staff. In the first year the shop raised a net profit of £22,000 and within six years the net profit was £150,000. They moved to new premises in High Street in 1993 and retired from voluntary work in March 1996, by which time £440,000 had been raised. The success of the Galashiels shop spawned a chain of Cancer Research Campaign shops throughout the UK and in 1988 my mother was awarded the British Empire Medal for her charity work, which included starting up the Oxfam shop in the town where she stayed for eight years prior to opening the cancer shop. The Island Street shop was converted into ground floor flats.

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