Fund-raising effort goes to head

BLUE is the colour for St John's Ambulance volunteer Jane Timmins as she embarks on a month-long fundraising effort for tragic teenager Michelle Coulson.

Mrs Timmins, of Bridge Road, Levington, is sporting a new dyed-blue look for the entire month of May to raise money for Michelle.

Seven months ago, a tragic course of events led to a dropped gun firing at Michelle at a house in Stoney Road, Grundisburgh. Her spinal chord was severed by the bullet, leaving her paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.

Today, her former colleagues at St John's Ambulance – where she volunteered for around two years – are rallying around to help her.

Mrs Timmins, who is the superintendent of Michelle's division at St John's Ambulance, has already raised around £400 in sponsorship through having her mousey-brown hair dyed.

She said: "Everyone at St John's Ambulance is very sad about what happened. Michelle is going to need 24-hour care for the rest of her life.

"She's going to need a specialist place to live in and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing."

Mrs Timmins is planning to set up a trust fund to help Michelle but this is her biggest fundraising effort to date.

It took around three hours at Renaissance Hair Salon, in Tacket Street, Ipswich, for the colour to "take" but the 47-year-old is going back for more.

On Wednesday, the Suffolk College student, who is studying a degree in fine art, is returning to the hairdresser's to go even darker blue.

She joked: "I'll fit in well at the college – I might not fit in too well with my friends and family but the college is ok."

Daughter Alix, 21, accompanied her mother out of the hairdresser's and said she was certainly turning heads when she left the salon.

"My mum said people were staring at her but I said what do you expect when you dye your hair blue!"

To make a donation to the Michelle Coulson appeal or to sponsor Mrs Timmins, write to Geraldine Thompson, Editor's Secretary, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN.