Fife man launches Lego appeal to bring joy to less fortunate families

Jamie Anderson, who is a pharmacy technician at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital, is a keen collector of Lego sets. After receiving a number of free sets with his orders, he decided to share the joy he gets from them with those less fortunate.

He explained: “When we buy Lego sets online, sometimes they give you free sets depending on what you spend. I didn't really have any intention of building them and I thought I would collect them and give them to a charity. That got the ball rolling with this idea.”

Jamie kicked off the collection earlier this year and it has now grown to 113 sets. He had originally looked at distributing them through local schools in the local area, before pivoting to charities. He said that picking Fife Gingerbread was an easy choice when he read about its values. You can find out how you can help Jamie’s efforts at: [email protected]

He explained: “Looking them up, the values are quite close to home. They support families who are struggling. I think when we were growing up parents separated and we were well supported, but obviously there are tough times, and you can appreciate what other families have gone through.

“We reached out to them and they were more than happy for us to take it on board”.

Jamie created a Facebook page for family, friends and colleagues to find and purchase LEGO sets for the appeal, and it quickly grew to 60 members.

Jamie said: “We started out in August. The reason for that was to encourage people to make donations early and then they could focus on their own Christmas because obviously it's an expensive time of the year.”

Giving children who may struggle to afford Lego the opportunity to experience playing with the hugely popular building blocks, was an important factor in Jamie’s decision.

He continued: “Everyone has had Lego at some point in their life and, with it being expensive, we thought it'd be a great thing to do for these kids”.