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By Andrea McCallum
MORE than 100 well-wishers were joined by Jim Leishman as they rolled up their sleeves yesterday (Thursday) and gave blood as part of a campaign spearheaded by a nine-year-old girl suffering from cancer.
Samantha (Sammi) Bradley – who was diagnosed with leukaemia in August – has attracted enormous support after attempting to raise awareness of the disease and the need for blood donors.
By Rory Reynolds
HUNDREDS of Royal Mail workers in Scotland walked out on strike yesterday (mon) to support colleagues across the UK.
Around 460 staff from Dumfermline, Cowdenbeath, Alloa, Grangemouth and Edinburgh distribution centres were striking until 6.30pm.
It is the first time Scottish workers have gone out on strike since June 2007 – and only the second time in over 13 years.
Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the Communications Workers Union, claimed that the action was because bosses at Royal Mail have been dragging their feet over their modernisation programme. Continue reading
By Cara Sulieman
THE Scottish Government was blowing its own trumpet yesterday unveiling an extra special line up for this year’s Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival to coincide with Homecoming 2009.
Funding of £100,000 has been given to the organizers to help pay for a raft of special events, including a specially commissioned arrangement celebrating Robert Burns by David Milligan.
There will also be an Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra where musicians from Scotland, Europe and America will come together and play for the first time.
The 16 musicians will play two concerts to celebrate Scotland during the year of Homecoming.
A GYMSLIP mum who had baby just four weeks ago was jailed for six months yesterday after being convicted of viciously attacking a girl she claimed had been bullying her through social networking site Bebo.
Justine Finlay, 16, was captured on CCTV stamping on her victim’s head at least 30 times despite several pals trying three times to haul her off the stricken girl she left for dead at bus stop.
As she was dragged from the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court yesterday she screamed “Please don’t – what about my bairn?”.
And in a dramatic twist last night she was released on interim bail after her legal team lodged an immediate appeal against the decision.
Iain MacDonald with Christine Bleakley
By Alexander Lawrie
A HEROIC Scots postman who was severely injured fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan has won an award for outstanding bravery.
Iain Macdonald, 38, was on tour with his TA unit in the Helmand province last year when he was hit by flying shrapnel during a rocket-propelled grenade attack.
The injured Sergeant brushed off his injury by refusing to fly home and was back in the front line helping his mates within 10 days of the attack – complete with the shrapnel still embedded in his chest.
On his return from the war-zone the postie was then nominated for the Royal Mail’s 1st Class People Awards.
“To have won is fantastic”
And the delivery man has now won the national accolade for bravery at a ceremony in London yesterday – collecting his £1000 prize money from Christine Bleakley and Royal Mail Managing Director Mark Higson.
Thilled Iain said: “I was happy just to have been nominated, but to have won is fantastic.”
Iain, from Burntisland, Fife, was posted out to the troubled war zone with fellow members of the 15th Company – 4th Paratroopers in May last year.
And, while on duty on the Helman front line as a Guard Commander, ‘Sgt Mac’ and five regular soldiers were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades.
The married dad-of-two was struck in the chest by a large piece of flying shrapnel and was rushed back to the unit’s base for treatment.
Leave the shrapnel inside
He was transferred by helicopter to a nearby medical centre where army surgeons decided to leave the shrapnel embedded in the soldier’s chest because it was too close to Iain’s major organs.
After 10-days recuperating from the attack Iain demanded to be flown back to the front line to complete his tour of duty.
The proud, but modest, soldier has admitted he is delighted to have won the bravery gong, but says he was only doing his job.
He said: “I really enjoy the work I do with the TA and just did what any of my colleagues would have done under the same circumstances.
“When I first joined the Territorial Army in 1996 I didn’t really expect to be sent to a war zone. But with all the first class training I’ve received it didn’t faze me when I got the call.
“I remember the incident when I was injured very clearly. I was on guard duty and was speaking to a few other soldiers when we came under fire.
“I knew instantly I had been struck, but I was more worried about my colleagues who were more seriously injured than me.
“At the time I didn’t realise it was shrapnel, I thought I’d actually been shot.
“It was incredibly painful, but the adrenalin pulled me through.
The brave squaddie added: “I had no hesitation in heading back out there.
Afterall, all my mates were still there and they needed all the help they could get.”
Service and commitment
Iain’s Platoon Commander, Lieutenant Frazer Smith, paid tribute to brave Iain’s service and commitment.
He said: “Daily ambushes and intense firefights at close quarters with Taleban insurgents were the daily rhythm of life for Sergeant MacDonald and his fellow paratroopers, and it pushed every man to his limit.
“Iain is approachable, pragmatic, reliable and determined. Sgt Mac gets on with the job.
“I think he displayed that whilst fighting in Afghanistan. Just over a week after being injured, he was back with his comrades.”
“Worthy winner”
Ian McKay, the Royal Mail’s Director of Scottish Affairs, said: “Iain is a worthy winner of this award.
“His selflessness and bravery demonstrate exactly why our postmen and women are such highly valuable members of their communities.”
Christine Bleakley said: “In the UK our postmen and women are a group of very remarkable people who contribute so much, with acts of kindness, a huge amount of fundraising, and a commitment to volunteering which makes such a difference to the local communities where they live and work.”
And Marilyn Livingstone, Labour MSP for Kirkcaldy, added: “His family, friends and the local community will be proud of the commitment he has shown in the face of adversity.
“This is a well deserved award.”
As winner of the Scottish Bravery category Iain also walked off with a £500 cheque and a trophy.
A YOUNG mum who piled on the pounds after taking steroids to fight a brain tumour has shed an amazing seven stones in just under a year.
Lauren Cruickshank, 30, was diagnosed with the growth on her brain stem at the tender age of 18, but following successful surgery she has now been given the all-clear.
But in the weeks after her operation the mum-of-two ballooned from a trim 11-stone to a whopping 18-stone.
Lauren, from Cowdenbeath, Fife, went from a size 10 dress size to a size 20 within two weeks of leaving the hospital.
And over the next decade, the Scot battled against the bulge by sporadic dieting – but nothing seemed to shift the excess weight.
But, on her 29th birthday last year Lauren decide to take drastic action and alter her whole lifestyle.
She joined her local Weightwatchers class, began to exercise a lot more and ate nothing but low-calorie foods.
She said: “I first joined a slimming club a few years after all the weight went on, and I lost around 3 stone right away.
“But, I then fell pregnant twice within three years and that was that – I just accepted that I was going to be that size.
“But on my 29th birthday I was all dressed up and I looked at myself in the mirror – I felt so despondent I said to myself that ‘enough was enough’.
“The next day I tried to squeeze into a size 18 pair of joggers and could hardly get into them.
“It really was time for some life-changing action.”
Lauren drastically changed her diet and cut out all the fatty foods she gorged on at the time such as crisps, cream cakes and biscuits.
The 18-stone Fifer started to walk everywhere, began to go swimming and circuit training and joined her local slimming club again.
And within 11 months, Lauren was down to a remarkable 11 stone.
She said: “I’ve changed my diet completely and feel all the better for it. But, the thing is, is that I still eat as much today, but now all I have is the low-fat options instead.
“And, of course, I eat a lot more vegetables and fruit which is something I didn’t do before.
“I feel absolutely amazing now and I can do so much more with the kids. Before I just used to make excuses about not doing anything strenuous, but now there’s no stopping me.”
In 1997, the now-healthy mum was given just 6 months to live after surgeons found the abnormal growth on her brain.
And after surviving the dangerous operation, and completing a six-week daily course of radiotherapy, Lauren was told she had beaten the tumour.
Surgeons revealed that the Fife woman is only the second person in Western Europe to have contracted such a tumour.
Lauren said: “It was a huge shock for me to be diagnosed with the brain tumour. I was only 18 and the news hit me really hard.
“My mum and dad were on a holiday to the Far East to celebrate their Silver wedding anniversary and I had to call them and tell them the news. They rushed home immediately after the call.
“I had been unwell for a while, but didn’t really expect to be told that I had a brain tumour.
“Luckily everything went smoothly, and although there is still a bit of it left, I’ve been told it is benign so there’s no problem.
“My weight just ballooned when I started on the steroids. It seems incredible but I went up about four stones in just over a fortnight.”
“I know it’s a cliché but I feel wonderful, and I still get a kick when people I know well walk past me in the street.
“The look on their faces when they realise it’s me is worth all the effort it took to lose the weight.”
By Douglas Walker
A MUM has been banned from her local baths for wearing a pair of shorts over her swimming costume.
Attendants told Jacqueline Innes, 37, that only males could wear swimming shorts and she wasn’t allowed.
The nurse, who is teaching her two-year-old son to swim, says the policy is like something from Victorian times.
Attendants at Cowdenbeath Leisure Centre, Fife told Jacqueline, from Dunfermline, she wasn’t allowed to wear shorts when she took her son Jackson there last Friday.
She said: “I was walking with my son to get into the pool when a female member of staff stopped me and asked if I was going to take the shorts off.
“I asked why and she said I was inappropriately dressed and just walked off.
“Minutes later, after we had got in the pool, a manager came over and asked me if I had a disability.
“I said no and she said I should only be wearing a swimming costume and only men can wear shorts.
“She then said that my shorts were too long and they shouldn’t be longer than the knee. Therefore they posed a health and safety risk.
“If this was the case then why did the first attendant let me get in the pool in the first place?”
Jacqueline says she wears the shorts for personal reasons and was singled out by staff at the centre.
She continued: “Shortly afterwards a group of lads came in and I counted six of them whose shorts went below the knee. Not one member of staff said they couldn’t wear them though.
“The whole thing left me so annoyed and I felt uncomfortable in the pool so left half an hour earlier than normal.
“As I made my way to the changing rooms I pointed out the boys’ shorts to the first attendant but she refused to go and speak to them.
“After I got changed I found the manager and told her about the boys but she didn’t do anything either.
“I asked why I had been picked on and why only my shorts were inappropriate but she couldn’t give me a reason. She just said I wouldn’t be allowed back wearing the shorts.
“It’s ridiculous, it is like something from Victorian times. The staff were so single-minded and couldn’t give me reasonable explanation why I wasn’t allowed to wear shorts.
“Now my son suffers because I can’t take him swimming – it’s ridiculous.”
Jacqueline has since written to Fife council demanding an explanation for her treatment.
Glen Rorrison, manager of Fife Sports and Leisure Trust, said she wasn’t allowed to wear her shorts because they could become too heavy when wet and would weigh her down.
He said: “To ensure the health and safety of customers, swimmers are required to wear appropriate swimwear.
“For ladies, this would be either a swimming costume or bikini and for men swimming trunks or shorts.
“Non swim regulation shorts are not appropriate for either make or female bathers.”
Jacqueline responded blasting: “That doesn’t make sense as there were males in the pool wearing shorts well below their knees but no one said anything to them.
“It was just me who was told I wasn’t allowed to wear them. Why would males not get weighed down? I have been singled out.”
Deadline Press & Picture Agency 