First openly gay male Scottish footballer up for influencer award
Scotland’s first openly gay male footballer, a musician planning to play his bagpipes on every Munro, an awardwinning strongman and a fashion designer whose tartan outfits have been worn by Justin Bieber and King Charles are in the running to be named Scotland’s “Influencer of the Year”.
A geologist who has reached millions with her videos of rocks around Scotland, a spoof football commentator, a travel blogger who teaches her social media followers to speak Gaelic, and a mother-of-two who is fighting cancer for a fourth time are also in contention for the honour.
Organisers of the Scottish Influencer Awards, which are being held for the second year in Glasgow next month, have unveiled 65 nominees across 13 categories, including culture, travel, lifestyle, food and drink. Presenter and broadcaster Dannie Menzies will be hosting the event on March 3 at the Radisson RED Hotel.
Zander Murray, who made history as the first male Scottish senior player to come out as gay and tackled the issue of homophobia in the game in a TV documentary, has been shortlisted weeks after the Gala Fairydean Rovers player announced he will be retiring at the end of this season.
He is nominated in the sports category along with pete reid, who posts spoof football commentaries as “All aster Mckallester”, alongside world champion strongman to ms to lt man, and mountain biker s Laura Martin and Neil Russell.
Geologist Luisa Hendry, who has more than 260,000 followers on social media, is short listedin the“inspiration” category, along with Rachel Borthwick, who has been documenting her cancer battle on ins tag ram. Yoga teacher Jess Mckenzie, Graeme Sutherland, who has been documenting his family’s experience since his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and photographer and dancer Dylan Lombard, who is believed to be one of only a handful of people in the world living with MDP Syndrome, are also nominated in the category.
Culture category contenders include Grant Macleod, whose munro piping challenge has seen him amass more than 120,000 social media followers, Gaelic content creator Lauren Smith, who runs the Our So Called Life, music producer and promoter Sanjeev Mann, and Girls Overheard podcast trio Ash Reid, Eilidh Wells and Lauren Kerr.
Highland fashion designer Siobhan Mackenzie, who designed the Team Scotland tartan for the Commonwealth Games, is short listed in the style category, along with fashion bloggers and influencers Caroline Cook, Lucy Allan, Danielle Quinn and Mikey Davidson.
Heath and wellbeing nominees include Finlay Wilson, who is renowned for his “Kilted Yoga” videos and books, lifestyle and adventure blogger Rona Mcmillan, speaker, consultant and psychologist Ross Anderson, mountaineering, climbing and skiing instructor Scott Webster, and vegan fitness and lifestyle blogger Stefanie Moir.