Also in the news / Family fundraiser, Mind Your Head, fishing debris and more…
THE FRASER family from Gulberwick is raising funds for the charity Brain Tumour Research in memory of Kris Fraser, who died unexpectedly last September.
The family are running the Edinburgh half-marathon on 25 May, on what would have been Kris’s 52nd birthday, to raise awareness of the work of the charity Brain Tumour Research.
Kris, a husband to Louise and father of Kieran, Leighton and Eve, passed away after becoming seriously ill at work on board the North Sea rig he was working on.
He was immediately flown by medivac from the rig to Norway where it was determined that he had had a “catastrophic” brain haemorrhage.
He sadly died a few days later with his loved ones at his bedside in hospital in Bergen, leaving behind his devastated family, friends and work colleagues.
The family said they now wanted to turn their heartbreak into something positive.
Kieran said: “Dad always wanted to help his family and friends whenever they needed, and so through this we hope he can do that one more time.”
Louise also had an operation on a brain tumour in 2012 and further treatment in 2022.
She ran in the Nike Run to the Beat half marathon in London in 2013 with her sisters Clare Inkster and Katherine Nisbet, raising over £10,000 for Brain Tumour Research.
The Edinburgh half-marathon will be the culmination of local fundraising which includes Sunday teas on 18 May at the Gulberwick Hall, where Kris was a committee member, and an online auction.
The Sunday teas, organised by Clare Inkster, will include a sale of second-hand jigsaws, with family friend Carina McLatchie who has gathered donations for the event describing it as “possibly Shetland’s biggest jigsaw sale”.
There will be a raffle that day, with the star prize a travel voucher for two Loganair return tickets.
Kieran’s fiancée, Lori Bulter, is also organising an online auction which runs from 22-25 May. Donations include a return NorthLInk trip for two with a cabin, a six-month Scalloway Gym membership, a two-night stay in Lerwick accommodation and a Lerwick Distillery tasting and tour for four people.
The family said they would like to thank the many individuals and organisations for their support and contributions to their fundraising efforts.
Donations can also be made online through a JustGiving page.
MIND Your Head has announced that its Well Dads drop-in group has been extended for a further 12 months.
The weekly group, which meets every Saturday between 10am and 12pm at Islesburgh Community Centre in Lerwick, was initially a six-month pilot project.
It has proven popular, with several dads and their children attending on a regular basis.
The extension of this group has only been possible due to donations that have been made to the charity, with Mind Your Head thanking the community for its generosity and support.
Well Dads practitioners Kevin Briggs and Iona Nicol said: “The group’s a good mix of new and returning dads.
“It’s a comfortable and safe space with a relaxed and positive atmosphere, where conversation just flows.”
Any dad or male caregiver with a child up to the age of five is welcome to attend.
SCIENTISTS are inviting fishers to help a investigation into whether fishing debris collecting at offshore wind farms will pose an increased entanglement risk for whales and other marine mammals.
SAMS Enterprise, the commercial arm of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban, will lead the two-year project to assess the potential for lost and discarded gears, ropes and other debris to collect on offshore wind farm moorings and subsea structures.
Lead investigator Dr Steven Benjamins of SAMS said: “There is potential for lost fishing gear and other debris to collect on wind turbine foundations or their moorings, creating an increased entanglement risk to marine wildlife, but currently there is no information available about the likelihood of such an event occurring.
“With the projected expansion of offshore wind energy, it is possible that the entanglement risk also grows. This is what we need to find out.”
A NEW project to bring shore power to the NorthLink passenger ferries while berthed in Aberdeen is now in the testing phase.
It is said that the initiative, funded by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) through a seven-figure sum investment, will mitigate more than 1,300 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, improve air quality, and reduce noise.
The NorthLink passenger ferries have been converted to accept shore power and will ‘plug-in’ to a clean electrical power source, through the port’s renewable energy tariff, while berthed in Aberdeen.
A spokesperson for CMAL confirmed last week that the project is still going through testing, with the shore power scheme not yet fully operational.
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