Nan McMurdo passed away peacefully on the 12th of July this year in Crosshouse Hospital, after living a very full and happy life despite her battle with serious illness for much of her life. As many of you will appreciate, she also contributed hugely to supporting local people and organisations throughout her life. She was much loved in her local communities of Cumnock and the island of Arran, and will sadly be missed by many. Nan was a wonderful wife, mum, granny and a fantastic friend to all who knew her.

When she passed away, we received many requests from friends and family asking if she had a favourite charity to which they could donate in her memory. This is something that our family have put a lot of thought into, as we want to honour her memory in the way that she herself would have wanted. When Nan was awarded her MBE in 2015, it was for “services to disadvantaged and vulnerable people”, and we would like to continue that support in her name.

We have therefore decided that we would like to set up an ongoing fundraiser in Nan’s name, which will be dedicated to supporting disadvantaged and vulnerable people in her local communities. We would like this to be an ongoing fund rather than just a memorial collection. This means that you can either donate at any time, or you can donate a one-off amount, or you can set up regular payments, or you can decide to donate on occasions such as birthdays or dates that were important to you and to Nan. We will be contributing to this as a family, and we will also plan some fundraising events to add to the fund over the coming years.

The family would very much welcome any memories you may have of Nan that you would like to share with us to keep her memory alive.

To donate, please see Jillian D’Agostino’s Just Giving page.