Deathbed dash of Jackie runner
Running man Maurice Donohue has told how he went from being cheered by his hero Sir Jackie Stewart to having to rush home and watch his dad die.
F1 triple champion Sir Jackie waved the chequered flag at the finish line after arranging for Maurice to run a half-marathon around the Monza track in Italy.
The ex-racer also arranged Red Bull pit-lane passes for last Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix – but Maurice had to dash back to Scotland to be at his father’s deathbed.
Retired police detective Maurice snr lost a sevenyear battle with vascular dementia last Sunday, aged 83.
Maurice, 53, from Bonhill, Dunbartonshire, said: “I went from an exhilarating high to such a crushing low.”
Maurice was running at Monza as part of a fundraising challenge that has already seen him run at Silverstone.
He has been raising funds for Sir Jackie’s charity Race Against Dementia after seeing YouTube footage of his hero doing a fun run at Monza in 1973.
He aims to do a halfmarathon at tracks around the world to mark the Scots racer’s 27 F1 victories.
Maurice, who also lost his mum Mary last December, said: “My wife and I hadn’t been away for years because we’d been looking after both parents.
“Sir Jackie was very understanding about why we had to rush home.
“I’m so glad I was there for my dad at the end.” It wasn’t Bye, Bye, Baby so much as Hello Gigi as the Bay City Rollers appeared to have gained themselves a celebrity fan.
Model Gigi Hadid was seen out and about in New York in a tartan outfit that Les McKeown and the boys might have thought a little over the top in their 70s heyday.
Perhaps she will remind the lads, now in their 60s, of the days when their devoted fans, clad in plaid, used to follow them everywhere they went.
We assume there was model behaviour by all.