Colin Clunie’s friends say he’s the spitting image of Max the Gnome from the Asda Christmas advert – so they’ve teamed up to send him a sackful of them to cheer him up as he recovers from treatment for blood cancer.
The 68-year-old is back home for Christmas in Cumbernauld with his wife Ailsa after a bone marrow transplant, and every day the postie arrives with another Max, customised to match some of Colin’s favourite things – from Rangers, Tennent’s and Irn-Bru to pinball and The Walking Dead.
They’re up to 22 so far with more on the way.
Colin and Ailsa, who shop in the local Asda, are part of the UK pinball community, attending conventions and fundraising events, and it’s his pinball friends across the country who have come together to show their support after spotting Colin’s lookalike Max in the Asda ad.
It was their friend Gary Littler, who’s from Runcorn, who started the ball rolling.
Gary said: “We saw the Asda seasonal advert and thought Max looked like our good friend Colin who, at the time, was in hospital undergoing treatment for blood cancer. I set up a WhatsApp group of all Colin and Ailsa’s friends from the pinball community to see if we could scour the land and find her a Max for Colin. The rest is history as the pinball community came together and delivered.”
Colin, who’s a retired postman, said: “The gnome thing is absolutely crazy. Every time I walk by they give me a wee smile. They have cheered both of us up. There are a lot of lovely people around.
“Every time I go past the kitchen I see all these wee gnomes and they give me a smile. I think Max does look like me, especially when I had a fuller beard.”
Colin recently spent three weeks in Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow having a bone marrow transplant. He had chemotherapy treatment in the summer after being diagnosed with blood cancer earlier in the year.
He says: “It won’t be the same this Christmas because we have to be careful about infection so it’ll just be us two – and the gnomes – for Christmas dinner.”
Ailsa, who’s 59 and a retired nurse, said: “It’s so lovely and touching and very sweet of the pinball community to send support and love in their own special way. The first one came in while Colin was still in hospital and it was for me – to look after me while I was on my own. I just burst into tears of joy.”
She added: “We have been in floods of laughter, as have the postmen and women, when the gnomes have been delivered. We’re the talk of the sorting office here in Cumbernauld!
“They’ve been sent from all over the UK. They are all really good. Due to his cancer treatment Colin’s beard has thinned out a bit and he has lost his hair but he still looks like Max. My favourite is the zombie one but Colin likes the one with the big Welsh flag the best. But they are all so good.”
*Don’t miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
And did yo u know Lanarkshire Live is on Facebook? Head over to our page to give us a like and share.