What an incredible first year Love from Jamie has had. We had modest aims for our first 12 months, we were after all just getting started but our supporters have absolutely blown us away.
We were absolutely thrilled when we became an officially registered charity with OSCR on the 23rd of January – an essential step in being able to make a little legacy of a precious little boy.
Saturday the 29th of April saw our first official event, a quiz night held in the hall of Juniper Green Parish Church. The evening was filled with fun and laughter and some tricky questions! There were features from the classic rounds of general knowledge and music as well as the more challenging hidden message round. The picture round was the perfect tribute to Jamie; naming Mr Men and Little Miss characters… He would have put everyone to shame with his knowledge! Who knew there were so many?! The event was full, attended by more than 80 people and an incredible £1000 was raised. An absolutely wonderful start to the fundraising to get Love From Jamie off the ground.
The start of the year saw training begin for two of our trustees; Martin and Michael and Jamie’s Uncle Matt, as they committed to running in the Edinburgh Marathon Festival. Martin, Michael and Michael’s wife, Holly, all ran 10K and Matthew ran the half marathon. On the last Saturday in May the sun was beating down over the crags around Arthur’s Seat and the heat made for a very difficult run! The crowds cheered and carried the group of our runners home in 
spectacular fashion. Michael, Martin and Holly smashed their runs 
and did themselves very proud! It was an absolute honour to be cheering them across the finish line at Holyrood. A 7am drop off at the meadows on the Sunday and Matt was off for his half marathon. We shouted him on, spotting him at the 8-mile mark and then made it to the finish with Love From Jamie’s youngest supporter to cheer him over the line! A phenomenal effort from all 4 runners and the support they received raised nearly £3300!
At the end of the summer term a fundraising concert was held to celebrate the musical talents across local South East Edinburgh schools. Pupils from three local schools came to perform a whole variety of musical treats for their audience. Those in attendance were treated to recitals on flute, violin, cello and piano as well as individual vocal and choir performances. The talented children from Currie High School, Juniper Green and Currie Primary schools gave renditions from across genres. A high school violinist performed ‘Largo’from Sonata in C minor, a pianist treated the audience to New Orleans Nightfall whilst some Primary played a sea shanty on bucket drums and their choir sang “We are Unity”. There were many more talented children, their parents and the school staff involved in making this event a success and it was a joy to celebrate 
them. The event raised an incredible £600 for Love From Jamie and we’re grateful to everyone involved in this event, including Juniper Green Parish Church for hosting it.
Jamie’s Journey was our biggest fundraising 
event of the year. Martin is the Regional Commissioner for South East Scotland Scouts and this year Jamie would have been 4 and old enough to join the youngest section in scouting, Squirrels. Jamie’s Journey saw Martin travel to all 88 scout groups across South East Scotland across the month of August. This fundraiser was joint, with half of any money raised going to Scouting in the region, to enable more young people to access the opportunities that Scouting provides. Martin 
cycled or walked between the 88 groups and did it over 8 days during the August weekends. Martin kicked off his endeavours in the Borders, starting at Jedburgh heading to Duns and by the end 
of the first weekend he had travelled by bike all the way to West Linton, covering 13 groups and 236km! The second weekend saw Jamie’s journey cover East Lothian on the Saturday and Sunday saw Martin walking through Edinburgh North East District where he walked 23,000 steps over 18km to bring the weekend total to 26 groups visited. Weekend three was the turn of Midlothian and Braid Scout districts and Martin had company from his Deputy Regional Commissioner, Mike. Together they walked
from Gorebridge to Penicuik on the Saturday, passing the half way 
point and getting to 46 out of 88 groups. Whilst Sunday saw Martin and Mike start in Gilmerton and finish in Fairmilehead. The final weekend saw Martin cover the final 25 groups, visiting Craigalmond and Pentland Districts. This is home to the two Regional Scout Centres and Pentland is where Martin did his scouting growing up. Throughout the challenge, in all manner of weathers, members of Scouting and Girlguiding came out in force to support Martin in his efforts. Some walked with him, others supplied him with tea and biscuits, and all encouraged him on his way. Anyone involved earned themselves a specially commissioned Jamie’s Journey badge too. An incredible £2300 was raised, with more still coming in from sponsorship events across Scout units in the region throughout the Autumn. This will be split between Love From Jamie and SES Scouts! Well Done everyone!
An integral part of any charity fundraising is community events and Love From Jamie is no different. As December draws to a close there are still a number of Scout and community groups choosing us as their organisation to support this festive season, including Cramond Explorers who have decided to have Love From Jamie as their Santa’s Sleigh charity this Christmas. We are incredibly grateful to all those supporting our cause around Edinburgh this year.
As Love From Jamie’s first year comes to a close, we want to say a HUGE‘Thank You!’ to all our supporters. This has not been an easy year for many people in the country with finances for people becoming increasingly tight as the cost-of-living increases and we sincerely acknowledge everyone’s generosity throughout. Our modest ambitions have been absolutely blown out of the water and Love From Jamie has raised a whopping £10,000! This phenomenal total means we can begin doing the one thing we so desperately want to do and start helping those who find themselves in the darkest of times and need support for what comes next. Thank You for helping us do that. Thank you.
Love From Jamie has some exciting things planned for 2024 so keep an eye on our website and social media for more ways to get involved. With our love and warmest wishes for the coming year.
What a fantastic effort by Martin, Fiona and the rest of the Love from Jamie team. Jamie will be looking down very proud of his mum and dad and you have all done brilliantly to have achieved so much in so little time.
Tremendous effort from all involved, well done and a heartfelt thank you from all who will now benefit from ‘Love from Jamie’