Memorial money

STAFF and customers at the Lerwick branch of the Clydesdale Bank have raised more than £1,000 towards to cost of a memorial to commemorate those who lost their lives in air accidents associated with Sumburgh airport.

The idea to create a place of reflection and memory came from Pauline Nixon, widow of Neville Nixon, the co-pilot on the Chinook helicopter that plunged into the sea a few miles east of Sumburgh in November 1985, killing 45 people.

The unveiling of the £16,000 horseshoe-shaped memorial, which will carry the names of all 79 people who lost their lives in four air accidents, is scheduled to take place on 25 May.

Organiser of the fund raising effort, Robert Leask, said the public response completely surpassed their expectations.

While Clydesdale Bank donated £150, staff got together and organised a raffle and a cake and candy stand within the bank’s premises on Commercial Street.

Raffle tickets went like ‘hot cakes’ and by Friday last week a grand total of £1,090.71 was raised.

Leask said: “We are very pleased with our efforts and the memorial committee was actually gobsmacked when they heard how much we’ve raised.”

In October last year, staff at the Clydesdale raised more than £600 towards a new lift at the Walter & Joan Gray Eventide Home, in Scalloway.