The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Doddie Weir cancels sold-out Words festival appearance due to ill health
Rugby legend struck by motor neurone disease was to be speaker at Pitlochry
Scottish rugby legend Doddie Weir was forced to cancel his appearance at the Winter Words festival at Pitlochry Theatre today due to ill health.
The 48-year-old, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2017, had been due to talk at the festival about his life and career.
The sold-out event is still set to go ahead at 6pm with Doddie’s ghostwriter Stewart Weir – who was due to take to the stage with the rugby star.
Half of all proceeds from the talk will now go to Doddie’s MND foundation My Name’5 is Doddie, though festival organisers say they are contacting ticket holders and refunds will be available.
A spokesperson for Pitlochry Theatre said: “Our thoughts and best wishes go out to him and we hope he’s OK.”
Doddie first played internationally for Scotland as lock in 1990 and became a mainstay of the Scotland team.
He won 61 caps and scored 19 points from four tries and was a favourite with the Scottish crowd before retiring in 2004.
Since being diagnosed with MND he has been a tireless campaigner for greater understanding of the condition.
The Winter Words festival at Pitlochry began yesterday and will see household names including television’s Kaye Adams and Nadia Sawalha from Loose Women and archaeologist Neil Oliver give talks over the four-day event.
The festival, which runs until February 17, will also feature a host of writers and authors discussing their work.
On Sunday it will hold a Bloody Scotland crime-writing talk with Lin Anderson and Denise Mina.
The authors will be joined by writer and broadcaster James Crawford to explore the potential of Scotland’s iconic sites in their work.
A festival spokesperson said: “This will be a superb session with Lin and Denise as they uncover, with James, how the nation’s iconic architecture and locations provide a further malevolent character in their writing.”
There will also be a series of literary lunches at the festival.
Today, Polly Pullar, a local writer, photographer and field naturalist, brings her talk A Richness Of Martens to lunch with the story of the Humphreys family and their pine martens, interspersed with anecdotes and her experiences of the wildlife in Ardnamurchan.
On Sunday, Christopher Fleet, senior map curator at the National Library of Scotland, uncovers the legacy of the military maps of the last five centuries with Scotland: Defending The Nation.
For more information on the festival visit PitlochryFestivalTheatre.com