Hedgehog hero Sandy’s tribute to wife Alice, 74

HEDGEHOG hero Sandy Boyd has paid tribute to his late wife, Alice.

The couple co-founded the Wormit Hedgehog Care Centre in 1994 after coming across a rogue critter they named Spike.

They have since cared for thousands of animals at the shelter — with Alice “a huge help”, according to Sandy.

Alice died at Ninewells Hospital on March 25 following a long illness just six days before her 75th birthday. Sandy told how he met Alice by “mistake” at a dance in St Andrews before marrying her only months later in June 1962.

The 79-year-old said: “I met Alice by mistake. I had a complimentary pass for the dance at the bowling green in Methil one Saturday night and I was out with some of my pals because I was in the RAF at Leuchars, but my home address was Leven.

“My pals kind of got me a bit drunk and the next thing I knew, I realised we weren’t heading to Methil, we were going to the dancing at the town hall at St Andrews.

“I asked her up for a dance, got a row for standing on her toes and then, because she worked in St Andrews at the hospice and I was at Leuchars, we arranged a date.

“That was in the October and then in the December the Cold War started. I was on the RAF’s 29th Squadron with the Javelins at that time and we suddenly got shipped off to Germany for two months. I thought I was going to be sent to Cyprus with the squadron, so Alice and I arranged the engagement party for her birthday on March 31.”

The couple wed at a ceremony in Colinsburgh before being shipped out to Australia with the RAF. They then briefly moved to Singapore in 1963 before returning to Fife. Alice is survived by four children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.