Edinburgh City Councillor Stefan Tymkewycz has completed a 900mile challenge over Scotland’s 30 highest roads, a total ascent of over 44,000ft. The keen cycling councillor has spent most of his summer weekends cycling all over Scotland in a bid to raise funds, and awareness, for Malin Hospital children’s ward, near Chernobyl, Ukraine. The town of Malin is situated in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, which is still suffering the effects of the nuclear explosion at the power plant 25 years ago. Even today the children are born with serious illnesses and birth defects as a result of the radiation.
Councillor Tymkewycz said: “It has been a gruelling challenge; two roads in particular were a real struggle, the Cockbridge to Tomintoul road and Glen Quaich. The latter I climbed in torrential rain, the road resembled a small stream, with frogs jumping out of my way as I cycled up the hill. I’m sure the money raised from this challenge will make a difference to the lives of the Children of Chernobyl and that will make all my efforts worthwhile.”
The funds raised by Cllr Tymkewycz will be donated to Jim Gillies, a retired engineer and an author of To Chernobyl, With Love, who every year travels to Malin Hospital with much needed supplies and equipment to improve the lives of the children being treated at Malin Hospital.
There is a charity football match today at Cavalry Park in aid of the Diabetic Treatment Trust. It is being played between Castlevale AFC veterans (they used to play actively in the amateur leagues and their home pitch was Cairntows Park) and Riverside United AFC. Following the match their will be a charity raffle and Karaoke in Omans Bar again with all funds going to the Diabetic Treatment Trust.
Confirmation that historic letters carried by Sir William Wallace are to be displayed in Scotland next year has been hailed by MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Christine Grahame.
Ms Grahame, who has long-campaigned for the letters to be returned to Scotland, praised the Wallace Society and Scottish Government, after an expert group confirmed that it was most likely William Wallace had been carrying the letter from King Phillip of France at the time of his imprisonment and execution.
While the Lubeck letter has been shown in Scotland previously, the 700 year old letter from the King of France has never previously been on display in Scotland, and following the breakthrough by the expert group, the documents will now be displayed side by side.
Commenting, Ms Grahame said:
“These are the only known documents connected to Sir William Wallace and so it is marvellous that they will be displayed in Scotland, side by side, next year now that the dispute over whether the King Philip letter was ever in Wallace’s possession has been resolved.
“This is a great coup for the campaigners and historians who have worked to make this happen, in particular the Wallace Society, and I am delighted that these efforts have paid off. I am hopeful that discussions around keeping the letter from King Phillip in Scotland on a more permanent basis will be productive.
“Scots have always loved their history and the history of our nation. These letters tell part of Scotland’s story and I know people across the country will be very keen to see them on display in our nation’s capital.”
So Princes Street is now closed again for 10 months to allow remedial works on the tracks which The Herald reports could be third time lucky.
The Queen’s Hall would like us to remind you that they have a YouTube Channel here – and we would like to remind you that we have a YouTube Channel too, which we aim to make more use of soon….
