The Colonsay community has raised over £5,000 for a teacher and her family after their house burned down while they were away on holiday.
At the time of writing £5,647 had been raised after a ceilidh and auction were held on the island last weekend after a fire destroyed the home of Susan Dance and her two children.
To date a GoFundMe page set up by Jen MacNeill has raised £4,688 to support the family after the fire during the early hours of Thursday October 12.
Ms Dance had for many years been the school teacher on Colonsay, which has a population of around 125 and she now teaches in Oban.
A fundraising ceilidh and silent auction were held on Saturday (November 4) at Colonsay Village Hall, with holiday accommodation, knitted goods, paintings, whisky and farm goods just some of the prizes on offer.
“The community has been absolutely incredible and we would be lost without their support and help,” said Ms Dance.
“Me and my two children have lost everything and to return after eight days away to that destruction was awful.”
The fire chief had phoned Ms Dance while she was on her school holidays to inform her of the news and made follow-up phone calls after the incident took place.
The house had been in the family for around 40 years and had been recently renovated, having first been inhabited by her grandmother, Jean Cook.
As the island community rallied around, Helen Mann, Gavin Clark, Jen MacNeill, Tanya Wren and Chris Nisbet were at the forefront of organising the ceilidh.
Ms MacNeill said: “The entire island was shaken by the fire at Drumclach, but it’s been so heartwarming to see everyone come together over this last week to support our friends, neighbours and fellow islanders.
“The fundraiser night was a huge success, raising more than we had allowed ourselves to hope for, and again it was lovely to see the island all together in support of Sue.
“As someone else so succinctly put it, it just shows what great community spirit there is on Colonsay.”
Messages of thanks from the family were read out at the event, with an offer of accommodation putting a roof over their heads in Oban for the time being.
During the destruction, one silver lining was the quick thinking of a neighbour to save a memorial bench to Mrs Dance’s mother, through moving it to safety.
A wall then collapsed onto the bench after the fire reignited during strong winds, but joiner and plumber Chris Joules has now moved it to his workshop, offering to fix it at no cost.
“It is such a lovely gesture and is another heartwarming element to what has happened since the fire”, added Ms Dance.
Ms Dance also lost a huge amount of her artwork in the fire and last Saturday would have marked her 13th anniversary of living in the house.
“We are longing to get back to the island to say thank you to everyone, but we thought it would be too difficult to return just now. It is a special community on Colonsay,” she said.
“I just want to share my thanks and gratitude to the island’s community because we would be in a pickle without their generosity. I feel buoyed by it and it shows I’m not alone.
“I’m overwhelmed that the prospect of moving back to Colonsay is starting to become a reality. The community have come together to enable us to return to the island and it means the world.”
You can donate to the ‘Colonsay home destroyed by fire’ GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/f/hyjs5-home-destroyed-by-fire