A group of friends have raised funds in memory of their friend Vaila Tait. The funds raised have been donated to Mind Your Head to help fund a support service for mental health in Shetland.

The group of friends raised over £2,000 in the run up to the local charity's annual Fun Run and they were delighted with the amounts raised. Ann-Marie, who was one of the main driving forces behind the fundraising, said:

‘We started fundraising for Mind Your Head by holding a Chinese fundraiser night at The Great Wall, sharing our fundraising page through social media and taking part in The Mind Your Head Fun Run. This was in memory of a dear family member and friend, Vaila, who sadly passed away earlier this year. We chose Mind Your Head as we wanted to raise money for a local charity to further help people who suffer from mental health problems and also raise awareness within Shetland.

In total we have raised £2,285.00, which we are totally overwhelmed with, a huge thank you to every single person who donated especially The Shetland Catch, Katy Shewan (who donated amazing prizes on the Chinese fundraiser night) and The Great Wall.

In memory of Vaila, including donations collected at her funeral, over £3,780.00 has been donated to Mind Your Head, it’s truly heart-warming to see how many people have supported us through this and we honestly can’t thank you enough, Vaila would be so proud.

The main organisers of this team were sisters and a very good friend of Vaila...Shona Tait, Sadie Tait and Ann-Marie Goudie but they could not have done it without the help of the rest of the team members...Julia Johnston, Christopher Manson, Emma Manson, Katy Manson, Daniel Meadows, Cathie Henry, Kylie Wood, Lisa Haining, Callie Keith, Natalie Timberlake, Lauren White, Lauren Smith, Marianne Williamson, Rhianne Johnston, Leanne Gear, May Graham, Leigh Johnson, Vivian Ross-Smith, Ella Gordon and Janice Drummond.

Vaila’s parents would like to express their deepest gratitude to everyone for their kindness and support.’

The group made the decision to put the money towards Mind Your Head's proposed mental health support service, and these first funds will help the charity with their plans to develop and launch the service in late 2015.

The Mind Your Head team would like to thank ‘In Memory of Vaila’ for all of their hard work in their fundraising. Chris Wright, Project worker for Mind Your Head said, ‘This is an outstanding amount to have raised in such a small amount of time and we want to thank the team for their amazing efforts.‘