by Neil Forbes
‘Saffron Rose 4 Rett Charitable Trust’
After 21 years we have finally reached our century, donating for the 100th consecutive time in Gibraltar prior to Scotland’s warm up game for Euro 2024.
UEFA certainly do not make it easy for us, as our match against Gibraltar was held on Monday 3rd June in Faro, Portugal, some 4 hours drive from the city of Gibraltar, making the presentation very difficult to organise. However the Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal will never be defeated!
After a lot of searching, we found a wonderful charity in Gibraltar called Saffron Rose 4 Rett set up by 6 volunteers to raise awareness of the debilitating illness, Rett Syndrome. It is run by Paul Borge, the father of a girl who suffers from the debilitating condition which affects mainly girls. It is a very small charity and assists children with other disabilities in Gibraltar as Rett syndrome is extremely rare.
With the logistics of travelling to the match proving to be difficult, the presentation took place on the 2nd June within The Alameda Gibraltar Botanical Gardens , where the funds TASA has donated will be used to set up an educational zone for children with disabilities in order to include them in the gardens. They also intend to use the donation to supply bed changing facilities within the toilets and various sensory equipment and wheelchair accessible items such as planters.
Myself and a friend, Arne Albertson, were the only ones who were able to make the journey into Gibraltar, where we met the founder Paul Borge and his family, including his daughter, Saffron. A guided tour of the facility was enjoyed, where the proposals of the work to be carried out were explained and I formally handed over the cheque for £5,000 to Paul.
A quick lunch was had, and a 4 hour taxi journey was endured to get to Faro in
time for the game the next day!
#EverywhereWeGo