A singing sensation who raised thousands for charity and uplifted the nation in the pandemic is now facing eviction from her care home. Margaret Mackie, 87, could be forced to leave after her family’s funds ran out and home bosses refused to accept council funding.
The mum-of-two has dementia and went viral with her versions of Frank Sinatra’s My Way and Bing Crosby’s White Christmas. The Linlithgow pensioner recorded the singles with her former carer, Jamie Morley, at her home in Northcare Suites in Edinburgh and beat the likes of Ed Sheeran in the charts.
The duo raised more than £2000 for the Alzheimer’s Society and Dementia UK in 2019 and 2020 and appeared on TV and in papers around the world. Now Margaret’s daughter Mairi Hunter, 59, said she is in the heart-wrenching position of having to find another home for her.
She said: “My mum helped to put Northcare on the map with her singing and, now the funds have run out, it’s a brutal position we’ve been put in. We’ve given them more than £200,000 since mum moved in. I’ve sold a house I had bought as my pension and my mum and dad’s £80,000 savings are gone.
"There’s nothing left and they won’t accept only council funding. I’m worried that, if we move her, it will be the end for my mum. She’s 87 – she has dementia. It’s not right Northcare is her home.”
Margaret has been at Northcare Suites for three-and-a-half years and pays more than £1600 a week. Her family pays about £1100 and West Lothian Council has paid the rest. The council said it could pay up to £832 a week but home bosses have turned it down.
Mairi has instructed a solicitor to fight for her mum to stay. She said: “Northcare said Edinburgh Council pay £1500 a week for residents. My mum was living in Linlithgow, which is West Lothian Council, before she went in to the home and West Lothian can only offer £832 a week, so she’s now having to leave. This postcode lottery system is completely unfair. It’s public money at the end of the day.”
The Sunday Mail revealed this month that West Lothian Council plans to reduce the number of council-run homes in its area to save money. Residents fear the homes will be privatised or shut, forcing them to move.
According to campaign group Care Home Relatives Scotland, Mairi and her mum are not alone. The group’s spokeswoman Cathie Russell said: “We are extremely concerned that care homes are asking people to leave when their money runs out.
“Folk are selling their homes to pay for a care home place but, with fees as high as £80,000 a year, their money runs out. This is leaving frail, vulnerable people penniless, homeless and begging the council to find somewhere that will take them.
“Maree Todd, the new Social Care Minister, needs to look at all this as they draw up plans for the National Care Service.” William Sawers, director at Northcare Suites, said it “offered Mairi a £10,000 discount for her mothers fee’s for 2023 and no annual increase for the duration of her mother’s stay”.
He added: “Unfortunately, Northcare Suites could not offer the standard of care and services that they do based on a £41,500 discount, which is what Mairi was seeking.”
Sawers said Northcare agreed to accept the council rate of £832 for 12 weeks but would not be able to accept it long-term. He added: “Northcare would run at a significant loss if the rate was £832 due to the level of our service and standard of environment.”
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