Student goes to new heights to raise money for GCU Scottish Cold Case Unit

A Social Science student is doing a sponsored skydive to help raise money for a charity that helps families investigate unsolved missing person cases.

Social Sciences student Brodie Haldane volunteers with Glasgow Caledonian University’s Cold Case Unit - Scotland’s only dedicated university research unit which looks into unsolved missing person cases.

The Scottish Cold Case Unit operates alongside Locate International, which is a charity that helps families find loved ones involved in unsolved missing person cases. Using the help of volunteers, students have had the opportunity to review cases and analyse evidence as part of the unique project.

Brodie, who has volunteered with the Scottish Cold Case Unit since it’s launch in 2021, discovered that Locate International doesn’t receive funding after speaking to Dr Maureen Taylor, Co-Director of the Scottish Cold Case Unit.

Appreciating the amount of work that both the Cold Case Unit and Locate International do, Brodie was inspired to find a way to support them. She gathered together a team of student volunteers, and formed a fundraising team, coming up with ways to raise money towards the charity.

Brodie explained: “We were in a meeting with Dr Maureen Taylor and the topic of how Locate International get their funding came up.

She explained that they don’t actually receive any funding and we were all so shocked about that. All of the work that the Cold Case Unit and Locate International do is purely voluntary and their service is offered to people for free, so to realise that we don’t actually receive any funding to help support it was crazy to me.”

She added: “Finding this out prompted us to all put our heads together and we then asked Maureen if we could put together a fundraising team. We now have three people on the team which is great and we really wanted to get the ball rolling with fundraising ideas.

Brodie mentioned she had received a gift from her boyfriend to do a skydiving experience in St Andrews, which prompted Dr Maureen Taylor to suggest the idea of turning the experience into a fundraising opportunity. Brodie said: “At the time, my boyfriend had bought me a sky diving experience as a Christmas present and I told Maureen how I felt so nervous to do it. She suggested the idea of creating a GoFundMe and raise money for Locate International as part of it. We all thought that this was a great idea and a really good way to help motivate us to get started.”

Brodie, who will be jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet, admitted her nerves around doing the skydive but knowing how the money will help Locate International has helped boost her motivation. She explained: “This is my first time doing anything like this! I haven’t even done anything like a bungee jump before, so I’m a bit nervous. I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie so I know I’ll love it, but it’s still a bit scary but it really helps knowing that I have the Locate International team behind me.

The skydive will be taking place in St Andrews and I’ll be jumping from 10,000 feet. We’ll travel in a small, two-man plane and I just really hope we have some good weather!  It takes around 20 minutes to get into the air but luckily my boyfriend is doing it with me for moral support.”

With the skydive date soon approaching, Brodie wants to emphasise how important the fundraiser will be in helping Locate International continue the great work that they are doing. She said: “Getting funding would help so much with this. It would help go towards IT support, facial re-construction, and many processes which require a large sum of money. Locate International is such a great charity and I am so proud to work with them, especially being the only team based in Scotland.”

She added: “To me, going missing or being an unidentified person is something that you wouldn’t think about until you are actually going through it. Lots of people will hear about missing people cases, but not everyone will know about the work that actually takes place behind the scenes.

In terms of police involvement, there is only so much that they can do as they have a specific timeframe to investigate missing people cases.

It’s really sad, because it will often mean that some people don’t get fully investigated. Teams like the Cold Case Unit and charities like Locate International do so much to help and it’s all thanks to our volunteers who are so passionate about what they do.”

Donate to Brodie’s fundraiser

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media here