Hebridean naked peatcutters to set off for London
AN ex-Met Police detective is off to London soon with a load of hand-cut peat winter fuel and bundles of calendars featuring brawny Hebridean men cutting the winter fuel virtually in the altogether.
Organiser Iain 'Jock' Murray is also putting on a series of events featuring singing talent from his home island of Lewis as he heads for his former home area of Sutton and, ultimately, Petticoat Lane. It is all, of course, to raise cash for charity
Before he moved back to the Western Isles 15 years ago, Jock was based in Sutton for 40 years. After 2
6 years as a detective in the Metropolitan Police, he then ran a private detective agency there.
Many of his family are still there.
So Sutton High Street will also have stalls with the calendars showing several islanders - crofters, a hotel owner, a bricklayer, a driver and other locals - carrying out the the ancient Hebridean ritual of cutting peat, but with their kit off.
Jock, who is 69, aims to sell 15,000 calendars at 5 a time.
All the profits will go to charity - half to the Paul O'Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre at Gartnaval Hospital in Glasgow and half to the Anthony Nolan Trust, which also focuses on leukaemia and bone marrow transplants.
Donalda, his wife, was successfully treated for leukaemia in Glasgow and another family member had a successful bone marrow transplant.
Jock says: "I owe these organisations so much. They saved my wife. What more can I ask?"
He has actually been fundraising for months and at the West Side Show on Lewis on July 31, he bumped into Alistair Darling.
The chancellor and his family immediately bought a calendar and a t-shirt of an undraped peatcutter.
A TV company will be following them on the trip to London for a programme on BBC Alba that promises to be not the most serious in its schedules.
Professor Tessa Holyoake, director of the Paul O'Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre at Glasgow University, has spoken out to support Jock and his fundraising.
She said: "We are thrilled to have Jock's support. I am sure that both the calendar sales and the ceilidhs will be a great success.
He has tremendous enthusiasm for this project and we are very grateful to him and his team of volunteers."
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Weather for Stornoway
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North east
