Harith Ali: Showing his mettle

Since he started fundraising in 2009, Balerno resident Harith Ali has raised more than £50,000 for cancer research. A widower, Harith has two adult sons and a daughter, and four grandchildren.

Harith Ali’s family has been hard-hit by cancer. So it makes sense that his fundraising efforts over many years have been directed at hitting back at the disease. In 2008 Harith’s wife Linda, one of the UK’s top careers advisers of her day, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The following year he decided to help support cancer research.

“As I’d been in the building business, I knew that scrap metal brings money,” he says. “So I started asking people to give me their old lawnmowers, steel beds and other scrap metal to sell. Over the next six years I raised £3,000 for the Marie Curie charity. They had been very helpful to Linda, who I lost in 2014.”

The year before his wife died, Harith was diagnosed with bowel cancer. “So, for the last eight weeks of Linda’s life, we both had the illness,” he says. “I had a successful operation and then chemotherapy – and since then I have been in remission.”

According to Harith there are more than 200 types of cancer. “It’s the big killer,” he says. “My mother and father, and several other relatives died of cancer. And at the moment I’m losing my brother to it. One of my sons had the disease, but he’s now in remission.”

Word has spread about Harith’s fundraising. “People are happy to bring me their scrap metal,” he says. “It all goes into a trailer, and when I have a load, I take it away to sell. And every time I reach £3,000, I write a cheque to Cancer Research UK.”

Metals such as copper, brass, aluminium and steel are the most valuable. Mixed scrap metal can still be sold, but for much less. Although the market fluctuates, copper can sell for £4,000 per tonne, while lead can fetch £800 per tonne. Harith has friends, including a roofer and a plumber, who help him collect the scrap metal. A registered Cancer Research supporter, Harith places collection boxes too. Two of these are in Edinburgh and the others are scattered around the Lothians.

In 1964 Harith came from Iraq to study at Napier University, and later at Heriot Watt. He met Linda, and the couple married in 1971. Many years later, 73-year-old Harith continues to do what he can to fight an illness that has taken so much from him.

“I’ve had cancer, hernia and knee operations, and my back is playing up,” he says. “How long will I fundraise? I don’t know. But it gives me pleasure to do something that benefits the human race.”

To make a donation contact Harith on 07715 121112. He will collect items within a reasonable distance. Please note he cannot accept fridges, freezers, coolers, oil-filled heaters or washing machines.

The Local People column is contributed by Suzanne Green. Suzanne, a freelance writer/editor, lives in Balerno and writes regularly for Konect. She is married to Andy and they have two adult daughters.