STAFF and customers at Highland bakery Harry Gow, working alongside Inverness Rotary Club, have raised £5,000 to aid the fight against polio – with the donation rising to £15,000 thanks to a funding boost from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Sales of a special, purple-flowered vanilla cupcake at the bakery raised £4,300, with the Rotary Club raising an additional £700.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has matched and doubled the local total, with all proceeds donated to charity Polio Plus, which Harry Gow is supporting in association with Inverness Rotary Club.
David Gow, managing director at Harry Gow, said: “We have been blown away by the generosity of our customers and staff, who purchased our special cupcakes in their thousands. Polio is a very serious disease, and we are proud to have been asked by Inverness Rotary Club to support the effort to eradicate it worldwide.
“Despite everything that everyone is going through in 2020, it has been heart-warming to see Highland residents coming together to get behind such an important cause.”
Alan Nelson, senior vice president of Inverness Rotary Club, added: “The public’s support of this campaign has been really wonderful. Polio Plus is an important charity for the Inverness Rotary Club, so we’re glad these cupcakes captured everyone’s imagination in the way they did.
“Harry Gow has a long history of supporting worthwhile causes, and we are incredibly grateful to the team and their customers for their donations.”
