Chart-topping 84-year-old Edinburgh woman with dementia to release 'heartwarming' charity single in Christmas No.1 bid with rendition of Bing Crosby's White Christmas

She’s already experienced some fame having delivered a top ten hit…

But Edinburgh care home resident Maragret Mackie hopes to be back in the limelight with another chart-topping charity single in her bid to reach Christmas number one.

The 84-year-old, who has dementia and is from Linlithgow, has recorded a heartwarming rendition of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas from her room at the Northcare Suites Care Home after the equipment was sent over and quarantined for three days.

It is hoped the track will be released on a variety of major music platforms - Spotify, Amazon and ITunes - on Thursday and will be available to download with all profits split between two charities - the Alzheimer’s Society and Dementia UK.

Margaret Mackie and Jamie Lee Morley are expected to release their new single on Thursday, December 3rd.

Her former carer, Jamie Lee Morley, will also be singing on the track which will be released as a music video.

In January, the duo defied the odds by soaring into the top 10 of the iTunes top 40 UK Pop Songs live chart - above tracks by Miley Cyrus, James Blunt and Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber - with a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s My Way.

Jamie said the idea to record the new track came from Margaret’s daughter, Mairi Hunter, who has struggled with the impact of coronavirus restrictions on care home visits.

He said: “When I listened to the track after it was all put together I cried, I am not going to lie. She even does a little bit of singing at the end of the song - a bit of a mash up with Jingle Bells. It’s one of the most heartwarming things I have ever heard.”

The design on their track cover, by Stalk Photography.

The 32-year-old continued: “I can not imagine what it must feel like for people in care homes and their families just now. We want to put out the message for people living with dementia and alzheimer’s to keep going and push them to do what they love, whether it’s music or arts and crafts, because Margaret is living proof it’s important and it keeps her in a happy place.

“We would love to get Christmas number one and it would be an amazing achievement. But we wanted to do a single to lift spirits and keep Margaret busy. Any time she is singing or listening to music it lifts her spirits and it gets everyone involved and the public seemed to love the story last time."

Donations

Jamie said he contacted Ingliston-based SoundSound studios to record his vocals which were then played to Margaret over a video call to aid her in the singing of White Christmas.

Jamie Lee Morley in the recording studio.

Donations are still coming in from the previous charity single released in January, recorded after Margaret and Jamie became a viral hit with a video showing them singing in duet at the care home’s Christmas party.

More than £1,600 has been raised for the two charities so far but there were about 26,000 online streams last year which meant less money coming in from the more fruitful downloads, which Jamie is urging people to do for 99p. The new White Christmas single is due to be released on Thursday.

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