AN ALVA woman has raised a huge amount of money for charity after several of her customers were affected by cancer.

Christine Whyte, who works in the Crown Inn, Alva, saw several of her regular punters suffering from the horrible disease and decided she wanted to try and make a difference.

With the help of Stephen and Tracey Polley, she threw a race night in the pub which raised an astonishing £3,500 for Strachcarron Hospice.

Christine told the Advertiser: “A few of the customers have been affected by cancer so one night I had the idea of doing a charity night.

“It would be good for the customers and it helps that it is a local charity that you would be helping. The customers were delighted by the idea and everyone was extremely generous.

“I never, ever thought I would raise that much. I thought maybe we’d get to £2,000 and I’d have been happy with that. We were absolutely delighted to make what we did.”

There was plenty of entertainment on the night for regulars and non-regulars alike with free entertainment provided by a local DJ.

Christine also held an auction and a raffle on the night to great success.

She continued: “Two of our regular customers got their heads shaved on the night. One of them, Ian Simpson, he’s had cancer. Thank you to him and Neil Paterson for braving the shave.”

Raffle prizes included vouchers to a number of local eateries including Mr Singhs and Aldo’s, while there was also vouchers to go to the cinema among many other exciting prizes.

The top auction item, which was two tickets to see Paloma Faith live in concert, went for a whopping £520.

A signed Celtic top was also kindly donated by one of the customers.

Christine paid tribute to everyone who came out and made the night so special.

She said: “A big thank you to Stephen and Tracey for letting us use their pub for the night. I also just want to thank everyone who came along and donated and made it such a fantastic night.”