A kind-hearted charity driven Edinburgh mum has dedicated countless hours of her time to support the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home (EDCH).
Linda Thomson, 46, had supplied the animal charity with supplies in Christmas hampers that she had built up thanks to the generosity of her local community in the west of the capital.
But due to her kind nature she has not stopped there, committing her evenings to creating spectacular homemade wreaths out of reused Christmas baubles.
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Linda, who is mother to her son Glen, 13, says that she just began to create the wreaths in her spare time for friends and family before deciding to give one to the SSPCA.
This was met with much fanfare on her local community Corstorphine Facebook page with animal lovers getting in touch asking if Linda needed donations so that she could also make another one for the EDCH.
After a while, people began to request that she make personal wreaths for their friends and family as gifts.
She then had the idea to sell the wreaths at £25 for a small creation and £40 for a larger one with all proceeds going to the animal welfare charity.
Both Linda and her partner Craig Stewart, 45, said that they were overwhelmed by the generosity of those in Corstorphine and further afield, adding that it was fantastic to see such an overwhelming level of community spirit.
Linda said: “For the last two years I have been supporting the EDCH with the help of animal lovers in the local community.
“We managed to provide large hampers so that the animals had something over the festive period.
“I originally made one for the SSPCA who shared the wreath on their social media which garnered a really positive response.
“Traditionally I would make wreaths out of Christmas baubles for friends and family a hobby but would only really make around ten at most.
“I wanted to create one for the EDCH and then is when I was met with a massive response from people online who must have sent me around 30 to 40 private messages asking if they could donate some baubles.
“My partner Craig and I would then collect them or have them dropped off. But after a while someone got in touch to ask if I could make a wreath for them.
“More and more people got in touch and so I have decided to create them and sell them for £25 and £40 depending on their size.
“All the proceeds will go to the EDCH. It is amazing as with the donations from animal lovers they can be made cheap.
“It probably takes me around three to four hours to make one and I just do this when home from my job with Aegon in the evenings.
“It is also great because you are recycling items that would just be thrown out if they were not turned into something else.”
Craig added that he feels as though the donations have created a community of giving people and says that they have had people visit their home to drop off donations and chat to their pet dog Jasper and cats Diesel and Kingsley.
He says that it is a continuation from the solidarity that others showed to one another during the pandemic.
He said: “Linda sits and does the work for hours on a wreath. I enjoy going and picking up the donations as you get a bit of a chat with warm people.
“Folk who volunteer their time for a charity are kind hearted people and you get to meet others with a social conscience that can lead to making friends. you make friends.
“We get some people who contact us over and over wanting to help and donate. It has created a really caring community that all pull together.”
A spokesperson for EDCH said: “Linda is a fantastic worker for the ECDH and what she has done donation wise has far exceeded our expectations and that is all based on the work she did last year too.
“We love working with her and she is always coming up with great ideas on how to raise money and we are happy to support her and have her supporting us.
“She certainly makes a difference to the cats and dogs that we look after.”
You can support her fundraising work through a dedicated Facebook page here.
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