KIRSTY GALLACHER REVEALS HORRID COVID SYMPTOMS

SHE might be a well known face of sport but Kirsty Gallacher said that having coronavirus caused her to have ‘horrific’ sickness and shortness of breath that left her ‘struggling to do anything‘.
The glamorous Edinburgh born former Sky Sports presenter and model claims she was struck down by Covid 19 during the early stages of lockdown and said she was hit by loneliness and major anxiety during it. 
Kirsty, 44, who has been spending lockdown in the middle of the countryside in her new £1.4 million home in Berkshire and has had her sons Oscar, 13 and Jude, 10 living with her for only part of it - after sharing time with their father - admitted she had been really unwell. 
The brunette beauty who now hosts a variety of sporting events including Soccer Aid said: “I actually had coronavirus quite badly just before lockdown. I had it over that period. I didn’t feel normal for about a month at the start of it.  I was very unwell. I completely empathise with people who have had all different strains of it and things go on. I had the whole lot. It was awful. I had the breathing thing which I thought was anxiety because of the lockdown situation. I was full on working the week before lockdown and at the time I didn’t know had it. All these symptoms were not actually really documented until weeks later - like loss of sense of smell and taste and sickness and all those nice pleasant things .”
Kirsty whose father is the former Ryder cup captain Bernard Gallacher split from her husband rugby star Paul Samson in 2014. She had visited Edinburgh in the days before lockdown for a promotion with Gavin Hastings. 

The presenter who takes her fitness and well being seriously, and packs in three personal training sessions a week plus running and swimming on top of sustaining a well-balanced diet of fruit, vegetables, lean meat and fish, admitted that she had suffered anxiety during her illness. 

She said: ”It’s been hard in many ways as well. I was on my own and that was when I felt the loneliness and was really unwell. I was not sure of what was going on and I had major anxiety. I had real trouble breathing. I didn’t go to hospital or anything. I controlled it. Coronavirus is a very strange virus is all I can say. Every day I had something different and  new. The cough actually came last for me which was weird. The shortness of breath, I struggled  just doing anything. having a walk was almost impossible, it really was. 

Kirsty who has tried to get her fitness levels back throughout lockdown with a variety of exercises and took part in Wheels For Heroes on Sky Sports this week said: “It was dreadful and the sickness was horrific. I’m trying to get back to  normal and it’s really hard.”

Now that she is feeling a bit better Kirsty claims she has been enjoying  wearing little to no make up during lockdown. 

She said: “I am low maintenance. One thing about lockdown I’ve been loving is having no make up. I was on Good Morning Britain and had to put on some and almost forgot how to do it.  I’ve been loving not having to do it and it’s been lovely having a rest from it. On TV you end up wearing so much and on TV with high definition you have to have it trowelled on.”

KT TUNSTALL, WET WET WET, LUKE LA VOLPE SAVE SCOTTISH VENUES

KT Tunstall, Wet Wet Wet, Luke La Volpe, Be Charlotte, Fatherson and Hunter and The Bear are just some of the musicians supporting grassroots music venues this week. 

The Xcerts, Hue & Cry, Honeyblood, Anchor Lane, Kerri Watt, Seil Lien, Declan Welsh, The Jellyman’s Daughter and Bow Anderson also join host Vic Galloway to perform across three virtual stages on Friday June 19. 

 Streamed on livefrom.events, the festival will be raising money to support Scotland's vital grassroots music venues facing closure due to Covid-19.

Luke La Volpe, who has already organised 2 successful fundraising events for Music Venue Trust’s #saveourvenues campaign said, “It’s an absolute surprise and honour to be invited to be a Patron for the Music Venue Trust. When I looked at who else they have as patrons I was in shock. The past few weeks have been difficult for absolutely everyone on the planet and I was thinking of ways I could do something positive and all I really have to do that with is music. When I came across the MVT and found out what they do for Grassroots venues it was a no brainer to put something together to help them and spread awareness. 

Every artist starts off in these grassroots venues, including all the other MVT patrons, however big they've got, and without them you have no music business. I’m glad to be part of such a great initiative and will do my bit to ensure that the venues survive and can have us all back playing in front of people before too long.”

 Stina Tweeddale aka. Honeyblood added, “I honestly don’t know where I would be without the grassroots venue touring circuit in the UK. Not only as an artist but as a music lover, these places are the building blocks of the musical community. A venue is so much more than a room where gigs take place - it’s walls soak up every show that goes on within it, creating a history of live music right before our eyes and ears.”

Save Our Scottish Venues kicks off at 8pm on Thursday 18 June with an exclusive set from Fran Healy (Travis) free to view at https://www.facebook.com/musicvenuetrust/. The main festival starts at 8pm on Friday 19 June with 3 stages of music and chat. Line-up and ticket details here: http://musicvenuetrust.com

    Tickets are on sale now from 

www.universe.com/events/save-our-scottish-venues-tickets-edinburgh-307Q9X

TORCHWOOD AND DOCTOR WHO STAR JOHN BARROWMAN RUSHED MUM TO HOSPITAL AFTER FALL

SCOTS actor John  Barrowman ended up having to go to hospital with his mum after she had a bad fall at home during isolation. 
The 53 year old Tochwood and Doctor Who actor from Mount Vernon now lives in Palm Springs with his actor husband Scott Gill.    
The two men ended up in accident and emergency after John’s mum Marion who also lives in Palm Springs at a £500,000 home gifted to her by John with her husband John senior had to be rushed there for treatment. 
John said of his mum who celebrated her 65th wedding anniversary two weeks ago: “My mother had a fall resulting in a fractured pelvis. We had to deal with it today so our social distancing went out the window but we wore masks and lots of sanitizer and alcohol spray. 


“We took her to the hospital. We got her x rayed and obviously we didn’t go in with her. My dad went in with her because only one person was allowed but the doctors who did her hip operation said she’s just going to need bed rest for a couple of weeks and then she is going to be able to get up again. She was in a lot of pain.
He added: “Mum is resting now and comfortable and my dad has put on his chef’s hat and his nurses outfit. It’s a sight to see but they are both doing well. We made sure of it.


He urged fans to send messages to her on his Instagram adding: “If you want to leave them a message go ahead and I will make sure they see it. It would really boost her spirits.”
After Trisha Goddard, Emily Attack and Keith Lemon sent their well wishes, John admitted: “I’m shattered.” And that he was going to have a really big cocktail.

SCOTS FAMILY HOLD THEIR OWN FESTIVAL DURING LOCKDOWN

Beverley Lyons 
A Scots family were missing music festivals so much during isolation that they decided to hold their own in their garden. 
Rebecca Geddes, 20, from Invergordon and her mum Lynne Laird, 41,  and stepdad Alexander Laird, 39, took a week to plan and build their festival site at home. 
As well as all the virtual top acts, Rebecca, a nursery practitioner, Alexander, a painter and Lynne a careworker, even had their own fairground complete with washing whirligig merry go round, a Slam shed blaring out the latest tunes, snack bar selling big baps  and a firework display consisting of a sparkler to end the event. 
Their hilarious footage of the T in The Garden festival even shows them queuing up for passes and having their bags checked before camping out in the garden. 
Rebecca said: “My stepdad has gone to a festival every year since he was 16 and it would be a shame to miss out a year due to events being cancelled. Everyone was needing to have a bit of a laugh!”
The family had planned to attend a range of events including Belladrum this year as well as Party at the Palace (not cancelled just yet), Peat and Diesel Irish tour, Hunter and the Bear, Skippinish, Westlife, and Davy and Sam Cowan. 


Rebecca said: “We thought up the idea last weekend and building started on Friday. We were lucky that we had scaffolding, tents, gazebo, portaloo and a saw to cut a hole in the shed. The next door neighbours saw it all from their garden and windows. Entry was free for us as long as you had fun. 
We had Peat and Diesel headlining on the pyramid stage, Davy Cowan and Sam in the Arch Inn and Flynn in the Slam shed. We had a nice clean toilet, campsite, burger van, stall, and shows.”
We never expected it to go viral but are really happy that it did. 

BEGBIE AND RENTON DAUGHTERS STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT

THEIR famous dads might have taken centre stage as Begbie and Renton in Trainspotting, but Ava Carlyle and Esther Mcgregor are hoping to steal some of the spotlight with their own creative endeavours. 
While the world has been in lockdown, Robert Carlyle’s daughter Ava who turns 18 in July and Ewan McGregor’s daughter Esther, 18, have been making music in their respective homes. 
Ava has been heavily protected from the public eye by her parents but was seen attending TRNSMT music festival in Glasgow with her Once Upon A Time actor father last year. 
This month she showcased her vocals for the very first time on YouTube as she sang her own emotionally fuelled acoustic rendition of Labrinth’s song Jealous. 
Blonde Ava, who sat in her garden surrounded by trees and flowers to record the accompanying video looked comfortable as she strummed her guitar to the tune.
She told her subscribers: “Hope you like it.”
Her dad Robert who was also in a band when he was sixteen and most recently sang the blues in film California Solo, was clearly delighted by the positive response that Ava received. 
He later wrote on his Twitter account: “Many thanks for all your lovely messages about Ava C.. she wants to thank you all and is absolutely "chuffed" to bits!”
Ava followed up her debut with another video of her singing Already Gone by Sleeping At Last, which also received rave reviews. 
Esther, on the other hand, has previously written a song about her actor dad Ewan’s relationship with Mary Elizabeth Winstead. 
This time round however, she opted for a more subtle approach with her music by going under the pseudonym of French Thyme with her musician friend Leo Major and their French house song Fraise, Framboise.  
Esther said of her new project: “We had so much fun making it and are psyched to finally release it. And keep your eyes and ears out, cause we may release an album this summer. 
Ewan, who was the singing candelabra Lumiere in Beauty and The Beast and also sang in Moulin Rouge, has previously referred to Esther’s music as ‘brilliant’.   

Esther who is offering to make bespoke clothes for fashionistas during lockdown  also featured in a brand new short film Assumptions this month which sees her smoking heavily, applying make up in the mirror and crying as she is thrown into emotional turmoil. 

Excerpts of this article have since appeared in the Daily Record

JUDY MURRAY DETAINED IN ISRAEL OVER BOMB SCARE

JUDY Murray claims she was once detained by Israeli security after they thought she was carrying a bomb into the country. 
Tennis coach Judy who is mum to tennis champions Andy and Jamie revealed the chaos she caused during an early trip to Israel when she and other tennis players were passing through Tel Aviv airport. 
Judy, who travelled to Eilat for the Fed cup with the British team in 2012, revealed: “On the first away trip to Israel we were passing through Tel Aviv airport and were detained by security in Israel at the airport and I thought what could it be? And it was our Pass The Bomb the board game.”
Judy who has always encouraged her teams to play board games as a way of building camaraderie was horrified when she realised the gravity of the situation.  
She added: “The timer is like a little hand grenade  bomb and of course it was picked up on the screens and it just cost us so much time. It was a funny memory from the first trip.”
Leon Smith who is now the Davis Cup captain added: “It was me who suggested we brought the game.”

Excerpts of this article have since appeared in the Scottish Daily Record

SCOTS COUPLE HAVE ZOOM WEDDING IN GLASGOW DURING LOCKDOWN

Beverley Lyons 


A Scots couple were so disappointed when their wedding was cancelled as a result of Covid 19 restrictions, that they held their own ceremony complete with celebrant, fascinators, confetti and sixty guests with champagne on Zoom.
Diane Ward, 56, a driving instructor and her engineering buyer fiancé Graham Ferrier, 55, from Carnoustie were due to get married at 29 Private Members Club on Glasgow on Sunday May 10 until coronavirus rules stopped them in their tracks. 
The couple had chosen the special date specifically because it marked seven years since they first met so they were keen not to lose the sense of occasion - and made an alternative wedding celebration with their wedding planner, humanist minister and guests  on Zoom. 
Wendy, who even had to cancel her hen night in Tenerife on March 20, was determined not to let the virus spoil their big day. 
She said: “We’d sorted out our wedding banns in February and crossed all the ts and dotted the is. We couldn’t wait to celebrate with all our friends and family at 29 because we’d been on dates there and some great nights out. We realised around the start of April that the physical wedding was going to be cancelled so we set about making an alternative plan to celebrate our big day with our nearest and dearest. 
“We invited people to join us on a Zoom link at 2:45pm for 3pm on Sunday and were able to have twenty one different households on with an average of three people per household. 
Funnily enough, I had ordered two dresses for my wedding initially - one was slightly bigger than the other - and I ended up wearing that one due to my lockdown eating habits!”
“We asked everyone to get dressed up and couldn’t believe it when some, including Graham’s mum ended up wearing a fascinator. It was quite funny because some of them had dresses on with slippers or trainers underneath.”


We had guests join us from Paisley, Prestwick, Dundee and Carnoustie and after we all said hello fifteen minutes before the ceremony, we took them out with us to the garden.”
The couple had been sent some hanging basket floral arrangements from 29 and Graham’s sister and brother in law, and they also had a bottle of fizz ready for after their vows. 
Graham, who wore his kilt for the actual  ceremony, said: “It took a while to get my mum and dad who are in their eighties onto Zoom but we did a trial run with them ahead of Sunday. There was a bit of snow on the ground when we went into the garden but it soon became sunny. We set the laptop on the table beside the shed and our humanist celebrant Susan Douglas-Scott got us to read our vows. We weren’t able to meet her seven days before the wedding to pick up the official banns due to social distancing so we had a holding ceremony of promise in the meantime until we can do it in the flesh. We promised we’d marry next year and plan to have a proper legal ceremony in 29 on June 20 2021. 
“My brother played Bruno Mars Marry You online and Diane’s four year old granddaughter Scarlett was our flower girl. She was able to wear her dress for the ceremony and loved dancing around her own garden with her pretty dress and shoes on. We popped open our  bottle of champagne after the vows were taken and everyone toasted us from their respective homes. Our neighbour from next door even popped a confetti tube over us from a safe social distance.”
The celebrations took an hour in total and Diane joked: “Because of the Zoom limit of forty minutes we were on a bit of a timer but we managed to have a honeymoon later that night away in the back bedroom.”
Louize Hollywood, wedding manager for Lynnet Leisure who helped the couple ahead of their physical wedding: “It was lovely to be able to witness the online ceremony on these strange times. The couple booked to have their wedding with us in 2019 and contacted me when things had to change. I work closely with humanist celebrant Susan Douglas-Scott who offered to do an online promise ceremony with them and we transferred the physical date until next year. It was lovely to see the guests all have their full outfits on. We muted ourselves online while Susan read our the vows for the ceremony and then whooped as soon as they kissed.”


Diane and Graham Wedding List


Virtual invites by email 

Bride and Groom outfits - Kirk and wedding dress

Guests - wedding attire including fascinators

Flower girl danced around her garden

Humanist celebrant conducted forty minute promise ceremony 

Exchange vows

Flowers from brother in law and twenty nine

Confetti popped by neighbour

Photography on Zoom

Food - Guest Nibbles on their own homes 

Drink - Champagne glass virtual toast

Wedding song - Bruno Mars Marry Me 

Honeymoon - night away in back bedroom 

From Scotland with Love