A BORDERS brain injury charity is close to securing the money it needs to secure its Hawick headquarters.

Heads Together, which is based at Dovemount Place in Hawick, were told they needed to raise £65,000 by the end of the year to buy the premises, after their landlord gave notice they were planning to sell up.

However, through the fundraising efforts of the charity’s chairman and volunteers the organisation is tantalisingly close to reaching their target, and have even been given a three-month extension on their deadline.

At a meeting of Hawick’s common good fund committee on Tuesday, December 11, chairman Steven Turnbull explained the current situation: “We’ve actually done quite well recently. Where we sit at the moment is we’re £13,000 short of buying the premises, so we’re getting close.

“Obviously we’re desperate to buy the place, and we’re hoping to get some help from yourselves.

“We’ve received a lot from smaller organisations, I wrote to a lot of places, and got quite a lot of responses. We got lots of £5,000s and £2,000s, and it’s all added up.

 “We’ve also gotten an extension to the time limit, so we have another three months to raise the money. We’re quite hopeful we’re going to do this.”

The charity was originally given a December deadline after being notified by their landlord that the building was now up for sale, but in a show of good faith the landlord has now extended their deadline until March 2019.

Hawick and Denholm councillor Stuart Marshall congratulated the charity on how far it had come, saying: “This is fantastic, you’ve come a long way since we last spoke. I think we should keep this open, and see where Heads Together are after Christmas.

“I’ve always said that as a last resort we should definitely try and help.”

The charity aims to give people with brain injuries a better life, and organises arts and crafts activities, day trips, and helps secure speech therapy for users.

Their Dovemount Place headquarters has also been made disability friendly, and the prospect of moving away from the building could have a detrimental effect on service users with considerable brain damage.

Although supportive of the scheme, Hawick and Hermitage councillor David Paterson sought assurances that any public money the charity receives could be returned in the event of a downturn: “I do hope this a great success and you raise a lot of money, but what if the common good fund give you some money, and then at a later date you fall on hard times, would some for that money come back to us?”

Council officers assured councillors that if and when the common good fund committee decides to give money to Heads Together, they can apply conditions to the funding that will mean the common good fund can recuperate its losses.

The Hawick councillors sitting on the committee agreed to wait until the new year to decide on what level of funding they could give, and have invited Mr Turnbull to rejoin them in a few weeks’ time.