Hundreds of prizes flood in as Kira silent auction smashes £10k

The power of social media has given women from across the city the opportunity to show their generosity in an outpouring of support for courageous teen Kira Noble.

Kira Noble.

From eye cream to a holiday in Portugal, members of online community Edinburgh Gossip Girls (EGG) have rallied to donate prizes to a silent auction to raise as much money as possible in 36 hours to help fund Kira’s treatment in her fight against a rare and aggressive form of neuroblastoma.

Kira and her family, who have less than one week left to raise £340,000 funds for life-saving cancer surgery in New York, have already cleared funds of £220,000 with more pending.

And just five hours into the auction EGGs, who number over 12,000, have dug deep with the total already surpassing £10,000.

Mum Lee Picken from Juniper Green, who has been coordinating the efforts, said it was a phenomenal response to an idea by fellow EGG Jenny Allan.

“I have never seen anything like this – this outpouring of generosity. A lot of people doing this are mums and it’s our worst nightmare, the thing we fear the most. Kira’s situation has affected us all and putting yourself in her family’s shoes – we’d go to the ends of the earth for our kids so anything we can do to help give her the best chance, we will.”

Lee has spent the last few days tirelessly uploading hundreds of photos of auction lots with more pouring in, and a final total which could now exceed £15,000.

The auction page, which is accessible to everyone, will run until 9pm tonight.

EGG founder Kylie Reid said: “It’s in times of hardship that communities really come together to show their support, we see it all the time on EGG, but I’ve never seen such an outpouring of support and empathy as we’re seeing for this campaign for Kira. It’s emotional to watch as hundreds of female Edinburgh business owners donate prizes, which has been put together so quickly by Lee. We all hope we can help reach the target and are praying for a positive outcome for this amazing girl.”

Raeburn & Corstorphine Pram centre have donated a buggy. There are meals, massages, kids classes with companies such as Stage Coach and Step It Up Dance, yoga classes, jewellery, online offers, an offer for a Will to be written, overnight hotel stays, car Service and home furnishings. Claire Stewart and Rochelle Vita of Pristine Clean Edinburgh, who gave a £300 deep clean, said the response was phenomenal.