BIG-hearted staff at innovative Scottish legal firm Complete Clarity Solicitors and Simplicity Legal have raised nearly £10,000 for the Team Jak Foundation, a deserving charity for young people with cancer, as well as devoting hours of their time to act as volunteers.
The huge commitment from the Glasgow-headquartered solicitors has added significant emotional, social and practical support not only for the children affected by the illness but their family and friends and those who have been bereaved.
The staff’s contribution extends to travelling to Livingston, West Lothian, where the charity is based, on a regular basis to help with hands-on tasks such as cleaning and painting, or maintaining gardens for people whose time is consumed by looking after cancer victims.
Now 14 members of the law firm’s team are planning to climb 4411 ft. Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest mountain, on Friday 21st April to raise further funds for the foundation, which is named after Jak Trueman, a Lothians teenager who died in 2015 of a particularly aggressive form of the disease.
Billy Smith, Director of Complete Clarity and Simplicity Legal, said: “This is a truly deserving cause and the entire staff are determined to do as much as they possibly can to help Team Jak help others in this terrible predicament.
“The firm became involved initially because my co-founder, Emma King, knew Jak’s family, but the legal staff, client services team and administrative staff have all since become wholeheartedly involved on their own account.
“I am afraid of heights – indeed, I suffer quite badly from vertigo – but I have abseiled down the outside of a building in Aberdeen to raise funds and in May I am going a step further by jumping out of an aeroplane.”
Jak Trueman was a happy, healthy teenager when he was diagnosed with a rare lymphoma. Demonstrating remarkable strength and courage, he raised nearly £100,000 for cancer charities in the five months before his death and charged his mother, Allison, with carrying on his work.
At his request, she created Jak’s Den – a purpose-built facility where young cancer patients and those with related illnesses, and their families and friends, could go to escape from the traumas of treatment.
Jak was just 15 years old when he died. The story of his fight against cancer, and his relentlessly positive attitude, touched the hearts of many people in West Lothian and beyond.
Complete Clarity and Simplicity Legal staff volunteers join others to help with the practical upkeep of the Den, including wrapping presents, maintaining the space and making deliveries. Another Den has opened in Aberdeen and there have been pop-up Dens in Fife and Dundee, Lothian and Borders and Glasgow.
As well as organising fund-raisers such as a corporate golf day and an in-house business challenge, the team have also participated in a Kiltwalk and will embark on another one in Dundee in August.
As well as Billy Smith and Emma King, who are qualified solicitors, Complete Clarity has 15 solicitors, four client services staff and six administrative staff. It was founded in 2010 and merged with Simplicity Legal in 2017.
