Barrhead volunteers and charity hand out gifts of kindness

East Renfrewshire Good Causes' (ERGC) the Love your Neighbour Club (LYNC) provides non-emergency toiletries/household cleaning products and non-perishable food to deserving, low income households referred to them by frontline staff.

LYNC recently received an Awards for All grant of £20,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) to fund the project and to hand out 160 packs across East Renfrewshire over the next two years.

In the Barrhead and Neilston area, a team of volunteers from Barrhead St Andrew’s Church, led by Graham Currie, are distributing the packs to those in need.

Russell Macmillan (Image: Newsquest)

Russell Macmillan, the founder of ERGC, told the Barrhead News: “It is a wonderful thing because the National Lottery is backing it, ERGC project manage it and it is local distributors in the Barrhead area who distributing these out to Barrhead and Neilston, so it really is community action at its best.

“I would like to say a special thank you to the dedicated volunteers at Barrhead St Andrew’s for carrying out this distribution side along with the National Lottery for funding the LYNC operation for the next two years.”

Russell, a registered blind man, and a few trusted friends, set up ERGC to say "thank you" for the “curing of both his type-1-insulin-diabetes and his kidney failure, thanks to a life-saving double transplant in Jan 2007, which cost the NHS £70,000.”

(Image: East Renfrewshire Good Causes)

The charity is based in East Renfrewshire, although now operates across the whole of Scotland.

The LYNC project, however, remains focused on addressing need in East Renfrewshire.

Graham Currie (Image: Newsquest) Graham added: “We have been involved as a church for the past year and obviously there’s a growing need for it in the community.

“We are just pleased to be able to help out and we are hoping that some of the volunteers from some of the other local churches will also get involved as well.

“It’s tremendous ERGC got the funding. The work they do is very practical and really all of the funding pretty much goes to the people who need it.

“Our role is to coordinate the deliveries for the Barrhead area in particular.

“Other churches and organisations are involved in distributing throughout the rest of East Renfrewshire.”

Yvonne Macmillan (Image: Newsquest)

Kate Still NLCF Scotland Chair said: “National Lottery funding continues to make extraordinary things happen in communities across Scotland.  

“It is wonderful to hear that Love Your Neighbour Club will be using this funding to support families to get back on their feet.

“National Lottery players can be proud to know that the money they raise is helping to support this vital work in East Renfrewshire.”