Navy crew lose their land legs

THEY have sailed the seven seas aboard one of the Navy’s most fearsome destroyers to protect Britain’s interests abroad.

Now fresh from a tour of duty patrolling the Falkland Islands, the sailors of HMS Edinburgh have had their plans for a 460-mile charity walk scuppered – by fears about their safety on Scotland’s roads.

An 18-strong team had planned to march from Portsmouth to Edinburgh to raise thousands of pounds to raise money for the Radio Lollipop volunteer team at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

But worries about a sailor being knocked down on one of the busy A-roads between the Capital and the Border have forced the crew to abandon their original plan.

Instead, a team from HMS Edinburgh will march the same distance around the streets of the Capital collecting money.

The ship’s supply officer Phil Waterhouse explained the problem with the march first arose when he contacted police forces along the route.

He said: “Many of the A-roads we wanted to use didn’t have proper pavements or pathways running alongside. The last thing we wanted to see was a sailor being run over.”

The original plan was for three sailors from an 18-strong team to be on the road at any one time, marching from the ship’s home base in Portsmouth to the Capital.

But now a slimmed-down squad of five teams of two will pound the streets of Edinburgh instead.

Iain Wynn, the ship’s 30-year-old leading stores accountant, from Liberton, organised the march. He said: “The sailors are really up for this challenge and have been putting in lots of preparation, so there was no way we were going to back out.”

He explained the march will begin at 10am on Saturday, February 9, at the Sick Kids Hospital.

Teams will start from there with some going to Cramond, Granton and Portobello.

The march will climax at 2pm on Saturday, February 16, with the sailors marching up the Royal Mile accompanied by pipers and children from the Sick Kids Hospital.

At the Castle they will be met by an official reception party including Commander Guy Robinson, captain of HMS Edinburgh, Commodore Angus Sandford and representatives of the city council and Radio Lollipop.

Liz Neil, a spokeswoman for Radio Lollipop at Edinburgh Sick Kids, praised the fund-raising effort saying it was the biggest the station had seen in years.

She said: “Walking through Edinburgh has in fact worked out better for us because it will raise our profile in the city and also the profile of the ship.”

The full article can be viwed at

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=93562002&rware=PAUBHTAKNZKV&CQ_CUR_DOCUMENT=2

Proclaimers visit glasgow

Glasgow gets more than its fair share of celebrity visits it would seem. Christmas time was no different! The Proclaimers (of Shrek soundtrack fame) popped in and went ward visiting like any other volunteer. They posed for photos, signed autographs… and of course… played the compulsory games of Jenga and Guess Who?

Thanks to Craig and Charlie Reid for popping up and adding to the usual fun!

See radio lollipop on tv!

Scottish Television made a special TV programme for daytime news. The show was broadcast nationally across Scotland in April 2001. You can see the programme if you have Real Player on your system by following this link: http://scotlandtoday.scottishtv.co.uk/news/ram_files/DD260401radio.ram

(if you don’t have Real Player then go to: http://www.real.com)

Prince charles’ visit to bristol

The Royal Hospital for Children, Bristol is the first
purpose built children’s hospital in the UK. It treats
15,000 inpatients and day cases, over 30,000
outpatients and 20,000 Accident and Emergency
admissions per year. It is a unique facility and
Radio Lollipop Volunteers are already working with
the children and are planning a Studio installation
in due course.

The picture shows HRH Prince Charles meeting Radio Lollipop at the new Royal Hospital for Children in Bristol. Radio Lollipop Volunteer Karyn Davies introduces Sabina, age 7. Nargis, age 16, (centre) watches on and was so excited she rang her family in Bangladesh soon after. Also pictured is Graham Nix, Deputy Chief Executive of the United Bristol Healthcare Trust.

Extract from a leaflet about the new hospital:
‘Modern paediatric practice recognises that
children recover more quickly in a comforting,
familiar and stress-free environment with plenty of
close support from the family. The new hospital is
‘child centred’ which means it is designed to
incorporate these principals and so aid the healing
process.’