Stars Help Out Renfrewshire Charity

5 September 2014, 05:00

A Renfrewshire mum's charity's got the backing of some serious Hollywood heavyweights - and now a Wimbledon winner.

Andy Murray created his colourful handprints while in New York for his US Open campaign.

Corinne Hutton started Finding Your Feet after pneumonia and septicaemia almost killed her last summer.

She only survived because of a radical treatment called ECMO, which saved her organs but cut off circulation to her hands and feet. They had to be amputated to save her life.

Since then, the Lochwinnoch businesswoman has been fitted with a state-of-the-art hand to become Scotland's first bionic mum, and will undergo the UK's first double hand transplant later this year.

As well as dealing with all of that, Corinne and her family have been working tirelessly on raising money with Finding Your Feet, in the hope of helping people who've suffered life-changing trauma.

That help could be in the form of equipment to make a home accessible, financial aid during recovery or assistance in accessing emotional support.

www.findingyourfeet.net has raised over £200,000 so far, but Corinne - whose 5-year-old son Rory calls her X-Mum - came up with a plan to boost their fundraising efforts.

She and her brother Davy decided to ask celebrities for their hand or foot prints so they could auction them.

Corinne said: "It started a couple of months back, where a friend of a friend knew Gerard Butler's mother, and spoke to her.

"He sent me his hand prints, which was very kind of him. He said he wanted to lend a hand and we thought this was quite amusing given that I don't have hands!"

Word of mouth helped spread Corinne's story to some other household names: "Gerard Butler led to Mel Gibson and Robert Carlyle and Vinnie Jones.

"We've got a few TV stars, we've got a few sport stars - I'm hoping to spread that net a bit wider as well.

"Any celebrity can help me, just by giving my their hand prints or their feet prints in any shape or form at all. It could be that they draw round them, it could be that they colour them in, could be they paint them and give me a handprint from the paint."

Corinne admits she's got her heart set on a couple of specific star prints: "A left foot from David Beckham is what I'm working up to, or I wouldn't mind a One Direction one, but I really need to be there to do that myself!"

The 44-year-old is hoping people will help spread the Finding Your Feet message through Facebook by changing their profile picture to their handprints or footprints, and putting on the status update: Today I'm lending a hand to all those who need help 'finding their feet'. Show your support, post your hands or feet and text  'FIND02 £2' to 70070 to donate £2 (or any other amount) to Finding Your Feet. www.findingyourfeet.net