Scottish Hospitality for Heroes

Crerar Hotels are to gift 2,000 free ‘nights away’ for NHS staff, care workers and their families in an initiative that will give the company and the public an opportunity to express their gratitude to those who have worked tirelessly throughout the Covid-19 crisis. The ‘Scottish Hospitality for Heroes’ campaign will begin with two key…

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Virtual tasting

Whisky expert Dr Christopher White is to host an online fundraiser to help Leith Spirits continue the essential production of its Covid-19 hand sanitiser. White – who edits Edinburgh Whisky Blog and is an auctioneer at Royal Mile Whisky Auctions – will live stream a tasting of rare drams on May 5th, with all proceeds…

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Saved by their customers

An innovative campaign has seen Dornoch Castle Hotel raise £54,000 in just one week towards the £100,000 crowdfunding target that will save this Highland hotel. Over 200 customers and well-wishers have purchased “pay it forward” vouchers from the hotel, which cost from £50. When the hotel re-opens guests will receive an extra 20% uplift which…

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Time for Tunnocks

Sir Boyd Tunnock’s daughter Karen and son-in-law Fergus Loudon have delivered thousands of teacakes and caramel wafers to frontline medical and construction staff at the new NHS Louisa Jordan hospital, at Glasgow’s SEC Campus. The 87-year-old owner of one of Scotland’s most iconic companies is isolating at his home near the company’s Uddingston headquarters, which…

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Chicken wings its way to charities

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) has donated 1.4 tonnes of chicken to Scottish food banks, school breakfast clubs and homeless shelters. The meat, which included 600kg of whole chicken, 250kg of chicken legs and 615kg of chicken breasts, was donated by SRUC from its carcass evaluation unit on the Auchincruive Estate in South Ayrshire. The chicken…

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Urgent Appeal for PPE Donations

MedSupplyDriveUK Scotland, a volunteer group of NHS doctors, medical students and allies, are urgently appealing for personal protective equipment (PPE) to be donated directly to local healthcare facilities in order to protect frontline NHS staff and their patients, plus those in GP hubs and care homes. In particular are looking for the following: Alpha Solway…

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A close call

The Scottish Gamekeepers Association has paid tribute to quick acting gamekeepers for helping bring a croft fire under control close to last year’s devastating wildfire in Sutherland. Gamekeepers from Bighouse, Skelpic, Achentoul and Shurrery estates acted swiftly, mobilising leaf blowing equipment and fire beaters shortly after spotting smoke rising from whin bushes on a croft.…

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A biscuit and a Blether

With the Corona virus lockdown causing a spike in loneliness, particularly amongst the retired population, Edinburgh charity project Vintage Vibes has launched a phone-based service to help vulnerable over-60s cope with self-isolation. Seniors who normally meet at least weekly with a dedicated volunteer will instead receive phone calls, with Vintage Vibes also extending the service…

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How the BBC continues to bring us the news

Reporting on a pandemic while trying to keep staff safe is a huge challenge. With Scotland in lockdown with the coronavirus, we all want to know the facts about what is happening, not just here, but across the UK and indeed the world. That is proving to be a challenge to BBC Scotland, who are…

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How we’re brought the news during coronavirus

Audiences to BBC news programmes have soared in the last week as the public try to make sense of the biggest shake up to their day-to-day lives in peacetime. On Monday night, for example, when BBC Scotland carried a news special combining both Prime Minister and First Minister live broadcasts, the TV audience rose to…

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