A Perth woman has said thank you after local people responded to her pleas on social media for aid donations for Turkey earthquake survivors.
Natalie Dormer (29) used social media to ask people to find items that could help the relief effort.
She called on members of her Body Pump gym class at Bell’s Sports Centre and mums dropping children at The Corner house, a Scone nursery to directly ask for people to go home and give what they could.
Then she drove around collecting all over Perth until she filled a 5ftx10ft trailer to the roof.
Natalie, her mum Katrina and brother-in-law Josh Henderson worked on a plan to get the trailer to Edinburgh where the aid was being collected by the Turkish community in Leith Walk.
But the trailer - borrowed from her sister who has The Balloon Studio - had no vehicle to pull it with.
The day was saved when local company Smartloo offered a pick-up truck and driver and came to her house to hitch up just in time on Friday evening.
Natalie raced off with Scott Horne - son of the Perth-based toilet hire company boss - to Edinburgh and arrived in Leith Walk at the Smith Place Hotel warehouse where a transport collection was just about to shut down and depart with aid to the airport.
The aid went to Turkey on a Turkish Airlines flight in the early hours of Saturday and will have been received in the country where its is so desperately needed.
“I was totally overwhelmed,” said Natalie.
She got back to Perth just before midnight on Friday evening, content that her spur of the moment plan had worked.
Natalie continued: “Like so many people, last Tuesday morning I was racking my brain about what I could do to help in Turkey.
“I realised I could not go there, so I must do what I can from home.”
The 29-year-old has worked in hospitality and estate agency and was free last week to drop everything and act.
Her organisational skills were pushed to the max as she got on ‘Egg’ - a female-to-female social media page for women in Perth.
“Once I put a post up on Egg, telling local Perth women I wanted to collect aid for Turkey, they inundated me with offers,” she explained.
“I said I was willing to pick up. My mum, Josh and I went all over Perth, Scone and Bankfoot, to people’s houses, churches, anywhere where there was stuff to collect.”
Natalie’s borrowed balloon trailer got stuffed to the roof. Then they realised her mum’s new car had no tow bar.
Arnold Clark offered a free van but, for Natalie to drive it, the insurance was too costly so they thought again.
Another social media post looking for help led to Mackie’s Crisps offering a van and driver, but the task of unloading and reloading the gear made Natalie think the best way forward was to get something to pull the original trailer.
She said: “Amazingly the perfect solution came right there at the last minute. I was collecting over at North Muirton when I got the message that Scott from Smartloo was at my house on the Scone road, hitching up the trailer to his pick-up.
“We were pushed for time as there was a Friday evening deadline on the aid collection, but we sped to Leith Walk with three bags on the back seat of the truck that would not fit in the trailer - it was that packed.”
Natalie wanted to thank everybody who had helped. “Perth people. You are fantastic. You made this happen. Thank you so much everybody.”
