Page 19 - W M Donald Newsletter - Edition Eleven

Willie back on the
tools at Slackbuie
& Kirkhill Inverness
W M Donald’s founder, Willie Donald, was enjoying a well-earned semi-retirement when lockdown began. Not one for inactivity, Willie found himself champing at the bit due to the gyms being closed, skiing off-limits and country sports on hold. His solution: go back to work!
Willie has been issued with new pints for his boots and is back ‘on the tools’ at Slackbuie and Kirkhill in Inverness
‘At Slackbuie we had to install a box culvert to take the burn and divert the HV cables, then a muckshift over the rest of the site and knock in the sewers for the site.
At Kirkhill we’ve found ourselves in sandstone which is not breaking out like hard rock and we’re not being left with anything usable, just mush. The rockhead is a metre down with another three to go!
The archaeologists are on site watching over what we are doing and they have found evidence of stone age (Mesolithic) fire pits. Amazing to think someone cooked their supper here 10,000 years ago!’
So, has the temporary return to site whetted Willie’s appetite enough to make it permanent?
‘I must admit all the Covid restrictions fried my head. I had to do something, so I went back to work. However, as normality returns and things open up, I’ll happily slide quietly back into retirement.’
*Slackbuie comes from the Gaelic An Slag Buidhe, ‘the yellow hollow’. The name possibly originated from the masses of buttercups that flowered there in summer.
Mark Stewart Fundraising
Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological condition. There are around 145,000 people living with Parkinson’s in the United Kingdom. The principal symptoms of the disease are tremor, stiffness and slowness of movement. When Billy Connolly was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2013, he said: ‘I’ve got Parkinson’s disease. I wish he’d ******* kept it.’ Connolly says the disease makes his brain work differently.
Mark Stewart, or Tank as he is better known throughout the business, is a member of W M Donald’s quantity surveying team. Mark’s Dad, Lindsay, has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and Mark has undertaken several fundraising events to raise funds for Parkinson’s research. He completed the most recent of these in March:
‘The fundraising ‘challenge’ was to run 50 miles within 50 days. However, myself and younger brother, Graeme, completed the challenge running a total of 95 miles (151km) within the 50-day period. Not bad for an ageing goalkeeper and a couple of boys who could not run the length of themselves before the challenge.
On the final run of the month, my Dad joined in for the last mile, which was a great way to end the challenge.
Between us, we raised over £4,000 for Parkinson’s UK. I’d like to thank all my colleagues and associates for their tremendous generosity, it was quite overwhelming’.
Footnote: Mark finished second overall across the UK in terms of his individual fundraising efforts during the event, raising a total of £3,075.
You can find out more about Parkinson’s Disease at:
www.parkinsons.org.uk
19