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Tom Gilzean BEM is out on the High Street or outside Jenners in all weathers raising funds for his favourite charities – every day.

One of the charities he supports is the Sick Kids and he reckons he has raised about £250,000 for that and others.

Councillor Steve Cardownie recounted the tale of Tom requiring a licence to be a permanent fundraiser. The council by-laws only allow someone to be a fundraiser for a certain number of days but an exception was made for Tom who is now 94.

A former ‘sapper’ he faced Rommel’s Afrika Korps, the Imperial Japanese Army in Burma and Hitler’s Wehrmacht in France and Belgium.

Tonight he was surrounded by his family and many friends to receive the prestigious award from the Lord Provost who had already bestowed the British Empire Medal on the champion fundraiser in 2013.

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.