Meeting Mairi MacLeod

Meeting Mairi MacLeod

by Alan Rick, Utility Warehouse Distributor

I originally met Mairi MacLeod one bitterly cold winter’s evening in December 2013 at a Craig Casey referrals workshop somewhere on the way to the south coast.

I thought I had travelled a long way, but no-one travelled further than Mairi. For her, even going to Glasgow for training was a 300+ mile round trip.

Next time I met Mairi was in the green room at Express Day 4 when I was preparing to run a Panel session. Literally, just before I was ready to go on stage, I saw Mairi and gave her a cheery greeting ‘Hi Mairi, how are you’ to which she replied ‘I’ve been given six months, and then removed her wig to show me her shaved head’.

I don’t think for one minute that Mairi was trying to shock me, but she said it in such a matter of fact way that I walked on stage to manage the Panel session and, quite frankly, to this day, I am unaware of what I said – my mind was on Mairi’s frank and upsetting outburst.

Mairi subsequently told me that she had two young kids, Hannah and Niall, and that she was worried what would become of them as her relationship with the kids father was not at all good and she didn’t want him to gain custody.

I asked Mairi was there anything I could do – and she said she would love to have one last family holiday with the kids at a Water Park, and that Niall desperately wanted to visit the Nou Camp football stadium in Barcelona.

Knowing the generosity of Team Purple (or the Purple Army as we called it then), I posted a story of what happened on the Partners forum on Facebook and asked if anyone would like to donate any money to help make Mairi’s last trip a reality, to send their donations to me.

I didn’t set up a ‘giving page’ which I probably should have – but the money came pouring in. Not only money coming in as a direct result of my post, but Craig Casey also took up the cause and rattled a bucket at the end of every one of his Referral workshops.

Mairi and her kids and her brother Callum got to go on their family holiday and enjoyed every minute of it. They even made an appearance on stage at MAD in the September of that year.

And still the money came in…….

In the meantime, miraculously, Mairi went in to remission and had some quality time with her kids, but then unfortunately her time came and, almost exactly six months from our conversation, on 5th November 2014, Mairi sadly passed away.

When her estate was sorted and probate completed, all the balance of the fund was transferred to a Trust Fund that Mairi had set up with the help of a Trust fund specialist from the Purple Army.

In total, Team Purple raised over £11,000.

Thank you Purple Army, Team Purple and Members of the UW MINI Owners Club