WHEN grieving mum Angela MacVicar lost her daughter Johanna to cancer at just 27, there was one woman she was certain she could rely on to help her through the heartbreak – her best friend Lindsay MacCallum.
But unbeknown to trusting Angela, 64, her so-called pal, 61, was a thief who went on to steal almost £86,000 from a charity set up in Johanna’s name.
“We were best friends, she was really more like family,” recalls Angela, who is also mum to three other daughters.
Now, as mum-of-two MacCallum, from Aberfoyle, Stirlingshire, begins a three-year jail term after being convicted of two counts of fraud at Falkirk Sheriff Court last week, single Angela, from Erskine, reveals the betrayal by a woman who was in fact a stranger…
HOLDING my darling daughter Johanna’s hand as she took her last breath after a 11-year battle with leukaemia, I knew there were calls to make.
“Her aunts and Lindsay need to know,” I said to her sisters, knowing time was running out and it couldn’t wait until morning.
My sisters were heartbroken, but with hindsight, my best friend Lindsay MacCallum seemed strangely detached.
I should’ve realised then that the woman who I considered my best friend of 18 years, the woman who set up a cancer charity with me – the same woman who would read the eulogy at Johanna’s funeral and we considered part of the family – was in fact a fraud.
It beggars belief that she is now the same woman who was convicted of syphoning a staggering £86,000 from a fund set up in Johanna’s name.
It breaks my heart because Lindsay was my best friend but now I realise I didn’t know her at all – she’s a bad, bad woman.
Angela MacVicar
It was deceit so packed full of vanity and greed it had been going on for years. She spent thousands of pounds during shopping sprees in Next, on credit card debts and even splashed cash on Christmas baubles to decorate her plush £300,000 home.
It breaks my heart because Lindsay was my best friend but now I realise I didn’t know her at all – she’s a bad, bad woman.
I met Lindsay in 1996, two years after Johanna, then 16, fell ill with chronic myeloid leukaemia, a type of cancer which affects the white blood cells and bone marrow.
At first I thought it was growing pains but when she started bleeding randomly I took her to the GP and pushed for a referral to the Paisley Royal Alexandra Hospital. Finding out she had cancer was horrific – every parent’s worst nightmare – but she took it in her stride.
So I bit back my tears in public to support her as she was added to the bone marrow transplant register, led by The Anthony Nolan Trust.
While her younger sisters matched with one another, they weren’t a match for Johanna.
I think that’s when her new normal set in and while her treatment was agony, she bravely soldiered on.
People didn’t know she was sick and when I think back I laugh through tears at a comment a teacher made: ‘you could have got extra time in exams and a free computer’. She was annoyed – she wanted the computer, not the extra time.
Joining the stem cell register is easy. You must be aged between 16 and 30, as research shows younger donors offer better survival rates for patients.
Fill in a form at anthonynolan.org to receive a swab pack – then take a sample and send it back.
“I was given G-CSF injections at home for four days,” says one donor.
“They gave me minor headaches and muscle pain – nothing more. On the fifth day I was in hospital, donating my stem cells and afterwards I was fine.
“I hope that more people will join the stem cell register and help Anthony Nolan save the lives of people with blood cancer and blood disorders.
“If a family member or friend was diagnosed with blood cancer, it would make such a difference to know that they have a match and a second chance at life.”
Shortly afterwards Joanna got a bone marrow match but when it failed, it meant she was back on the register. It was then we jointly decided to contact the Trust to see if we could help raise awareness.
So much is known about blood donation, but far less about bone marrow donation but it’s so important to save lives
There, I was put in contact with Lindsay who was the area fundraiser and she’d worked with the charity for about a year.
She embraced Johanna’s cause and together we began to get the message out there about bone marrow donation.
Johanna’s face was plastered across the press, she met pop icon Robbie Williams, and she was given a column in a regional newspaper where she shared details of her fight against cancer.
Johanna loved her too, so much so that after she died in May 2005, I agreed when Lindsay asked to read Johanna’s eulogy at Paisley Abbey.
Angela MacVicar
Soon, the donations flooded in.
“We’re a team,” Lindsay would tell me but in my eyes, she began to feel like part of the family. “We share one brain,” was a regular saying of ours.
Our joint aim of raising awareness was what had initially united us but we were so close we would talk about other things too.
When Johanna received bad news about her health I would confide in Lindsay and she seemed almost as proud as I was of the feisty, vivacious Johanna who had a much tougher hill to climb than most but always reached it.
I couldn’t have wished for a better friend.
By that point we knew each other so well and In the midst of my grief she was there for me, happy to reflect on Johanna or just hold me close.
Angela MacVicar
There were plenty of tears shed because while I didn’t want to burden my daughters with how difficult life was, Lindsay provided a kind and listening ear. “I’m lucky to have you,” I’d say.
If the phone rang I could bet on it being her – we called each other three times a day. I loved her mum and was close to her daughter and sisters too.
I considered her husband a friend as well and I felt so lucky to have them in my life – especially when things were so difficult with Johanna.
“I’ll give you £20,000,” she said, bizarrely… but it didn’t make sense. She also sent me a message on Facebook saying “I’ve let everybody down, I’m so sorry.”
Angela MacVicar
Johanna loved her too, so much so that after she died in May 2005, I agreed when Lindsay asked to read Johanna’s eulogy at Paisley Abbey.
By that point we knew each other so well and In the midst of my grief she was there for me, happy to reflect on Johanna or just hold me close.
We’d go on holidays to Majorca, travel to see shows in London and I even spent New Year’s Eve with her family.
She helped organise my other daughters’ weddings and sat smiling in her seat near the front.
Yet behind the smile she was stealing money from a cause set up because of the sister they’d lost.
I was passionate about fundraising and Johanna had felt counselling for her and the families of those impacted by cancer was lacking. I was keen to act on this with Johanna as the figurehead.
I was stunned, but more than that, I felt extremely sad and frustrating, she has never explained her reasons.
Angela MacVicar
And Lindsay, claiming she was as passionate about the cause as I was, left The Anthony Nolan Trust and together we launched The Rainbow Valley, a charity set up in memory of my incredibly brave daughter.
“We’ll do this for Johanna,” said Lindsay.
For years, it was plain sailing but that was until 2022 when alarm bells rang,
I was organising a fundraising ball when I noticed around £20,000 which Lindsay was meant to be depositing into the charity’s account was actually going into her account.
I questioned her about it, assuming it was a mistake, but she was completely calm.
“I’ll give you £20,000,” she said, bizarrely… but it didn’t make sense. She also sent me a message on Facebook saying “I’ve let everybody down, I’m so sorry.”
I took her word in the moment but I knew I had to go to the police.
It was impossible to believe that I was saying “my best friend is a fraud” but the figures didn’t add up.
A few months later she was arrested and the full extent of her theft and deceit began to unravel when she later appeared in court.
She had taken almost £86,000 from The Rainbow Valley and another £9,000 from the Aberfoyle Friends of Anthony Nolan Trust.
And despite the court hearing that she wasn’t in financial difficulty, she had forged the signatures of charity staff and between 2011 and 2021, she had rerouted cash from fundraising accounts to her own.
I was stunned, but more than that, I felt extremely sad and frustrating, she has never explained her reasons.
Helen Nisbet, Procurator Fiscal for Tayside, Central and Fife, said: “This was a shocking betrayal of trust by someone who had financial oversight of funds from two cancer charities.
“I am sure people will be appalled that charity donations given in good faith and intended to benefit some of those affected by cancer have been stolen to fund McCallum’s lifestyle.
“It is vital that the public have confidence that the money they raise and donate to charity goes to those for whom it was intended.
“The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is committed to tackling financial crime of this kind.”
I went to court to see her plead guilty and be sentenced and her advocate said she had never explained the reason, despite being asked multiple times.
Prosecutors told how she had brought devastation to those who trusted her which couldn’t be more true.
Lindsay was jailed for three years and I’m awaiting a Proceeds of Crime hearing in November. She said at court she intended to pay back the money and I hope she keeps her word.
I was bereft when I found out what she had done, completely bereft.
She was my best friend, and I trusted her implicitly and so did my beloved Johanna.
Now I feel like I never really knew her – the girl I loved never really existed.
Lindsay tarnished my beautiful girl’s name but I won’t hate her, I won’t hold hate in my heart.
