A fleeting brush with unemployment was enough to persuade a Tayside woman to start her own charity campaign.
Now, only a few weeks after she launched Donate Warmth, Megan Gellatly’s house in Arbroath is overflowing with bags of clothes and blankets for homeless people in the region.
Megan, 22, said: “I am overwhelmed by the support I have received.
“So many people have given me clothes, duvets and blankets that I am running out of space to keep it all. I am in touch with a couple of charities in Dundee who are happy to help me out.”
Megan, an HNC student in social care at Angus College, said she had received support from the Eagles Wings Trust in Dundee, who have agreed to act as a go-between.
She added: “They are going to help me distribute the things I have collected to go to homeless people and other deserving people who could benefit from the donations.”
Megan said she was also hopeful that she was to be given storage space in Dundee to allow her to collect other things.
She added: “This would allow me to keep collecting even more warm clothing and bedding so that we can help as many people as possible when the colder days and nights hit.”
Megan explained that although she and her fiance Kieran McRobben are very comfortable now, only a couple of years ago things could have gone very differently.
She said: “We found ourselves between jobs.
“Although we were pretty secure it made both of us realise how easily people could fall on hard times.
“I saw for myself how quickly things could get tough for people and I decided I wanted to do something to help.
“I felt that practical help was best and decided to ask friends and family to donate what they could that would benefit someone who had been made homeless.
“What I didn’t expect was the level of help people were prepared to give.”
Mike Cordiner, founder of the Eagles Wings Trust, said Megan’s work will turn people’s lives round.
He said: “I don’t know if she realised how big this would be. She has had a lot of help and advice from a girl who did something similar to this last year and we think we have managed to get her a storage unit.”