Inverness gran's big appeal to help tiny newborns
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AN 81-year-old former nurse who knits hats, cardigans and blankets for premature babies is appealing for donations of wool so she can carry on her good work.
Marie MacIver, of Esk Road in Hilton, was looking for something to occupy her time and initially contacted Raigmore Hospital in Inverness to see if they needed any knitted items.
She was advised to contact one of the bigger hospitals and when she got in touch with the Queen Elizabeth in Glasgow they said there was a desperate need for cardigans and blankets for premature babies.
“It was bonnets I was thinking of but I thought ‘I can do this’,” she said. “The nurse said ‘you have no idea how small our babies are’.”
Mrs MacIver, who learned to knit at her mother’s knee when she was very young, initially used a pattern intended to make clothing for a child’s doll and produces jackets in three sizes.
“One is tiny, one not so tiny and one a wee bit bigger,” she said. “They’re all in different colours.”
And, every month for the past 18 months, she has sent a parcel filled with eight jackets, eight hats and a knitted blanket to the maternity unit.
However she said it was proving quite costly so decided to contact the Courier to make an appeal for donations of double knitting wool.
Mrs MacIver said: “It is expensive and the cost of the postage is expensive but I don’t begrudge it.”
She said her daughter, 41-year-old Ashley, was born prematurely and added: “I had her when I was over 40 years old – she was premature because I was in a car accident.”
As well as Ashley, Mrs MacIver has one other daughter, Sylvia who is 54, and a son, 56-year-old Ray, five granddaughters and three grandsons.
She is hoping to continue creating her knitted gifts as long as she is able, adding: “One parcel every month is my aim in life. As long as I am alive, I am going to do it. And as long as they need me, I will do it.
“I still get back letters for every parcel I send, addressed to Granny Marie.”
* Anyone who would like to donate some wool can drop it off at the Courier office, New Century House, in Stadium Road.
