Hoylake Handover

Yesterday evening I was delighted to be able to drop into the Wednesday Special Needs Club at the Hoylake Community Centre and present organisers Carla Williams and Pete Drew with a cheque for £310 - the money I raised by competing in the Hoylake 10k in September.

The club is going from strength-to-strength and has record 68 members at present. The centrepiece of the club is the wonderful sensory play area and Carla explained that they have done much to improve the environment for the members in the last year, such as installing new windows in the Victorian-era building and putting in an air-conditioning system, very necessary for the Summer months.

The money donated to the WSNC amounts to half the total raised doing the race. The other half is earmarked for a project to do with Musa's family in Swaziland. I hope to be able to report on an exciting development shortly....

In the meantime, Carla asked me to express her gratitude, as I do, to all of you who supported me in this year's 10k, and she also informed me that next year's race will be on September 18th, so I'd better dig out my trainers soon!

For more information about the WSNC, please visit http://www.wsnc.co.uk/

Salmon Netters Annual Gathering

 A fine night last Thursday, 4th November in Portsoy, Banffshire where I met up with old friends from the Salmon Net Fishing Association of Scotland. The pre-Annual General Meeting gathering included a meal at the Station Hotel where the guest of honour was newly-elected Westminster MP, Eilidh Whiteford.

Stories were told, reminiscences were to the fore and plans were made for me to visit some of the few-remaining netting stations in Scotland to carry on my Catching the Tide project which began way back in 1995.

The following morning I photographed members of the Association before the AGM at the Salmon Bothy, a superb community facility which houses a fascinating history of netting in the tiny port.

For more information about my work with the fishermen, please visit www.theformancollection.com