WATCH: Celebrity chef Tony Singh as he visits Maggie's Highlands centre
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ONE of Scotland's most famous chefs is cooking up a party to raise vital money for a cancer care charity.
Tony Singh MBE, who appeared in Cooking With The Stars this year, has been working together with Maggie's charity for five years, and today he visited the Highland centre for the first time as he met with centre fundraiser Andrew Benjamin and the team at the charity to organise two big fundraising events which are set to bring fun and taste to Inverness this summer.
He said: "We are planning to do a couple of really big fundraising events for Maggie's Highland, one will be at Tomatin Distillery and the other, because so many movies have been made in the Highlands, will be a Bollywood-themed event, and we want it to be colourful and just fun for people to attend and to raise as much money as we can for the centre because the work they do is just so important.
"They do an incredible job. in the UK and across the world.
"We have done stuff in the Edinburgh centre before but the centre here in the Highlands is amazing, and is great to see how all the centres are different.
"We had family members that had cancer and they had support, so this is a cause close to our heart. It's amazing what everyone in this sector does for people with cancer.
"Keep your ear out, have a look at what we will be doing for Maggie's in the Highlands – and buy your tickets early!"
Centre Fundraiser Andrew Benjamin added: "To have someone like Tony helping out with our events is just amazing.
"In the last year or two we have noticed that the trend for fundraising events is slightly changing, people want more of an experience, things you can't normally get.
"The events we are planning are with Tomatin and their brand Cu Bocan will be all about fun street food and delicious alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails, and it will be something you do not often see here in the Highlands. You can come and enjoy these events while raising money for Maggie's Highlands.
"In the past, everyone with a cancer diagnoses needed special support from Maggie's, but now even more so, with the covid pandemic – which we are still in – causing much more complications. The cost of living crisis that we are in has seen our benefit advisors' busiest time ever, with heating and gas prices, people going through cancer who need to keep warm will be struggling.
"It costs half a million pounds to run this centre and fundraising is exceptionally tough out there, that's why we are trying to do these different events. We need funding more than ever."
More information on Maggie's Highlands work is available at https://www.maggies.org/our-centres/maggies-highlands/.
Last year, the charity has helped individuals affected by cancer 17,000 times.
