Remarkable marker set

Gillian McKenzie and Matilda Hall cut the cake celebrating 30 years of the Borders Talking Newspaper.

A charity dedicated to keeping visually impaired people of the Borders in the loop has reached a major milestone.

The Borders Talking Newspaper celebrated its “remarkable” thirtieth birthday at its Annual General Meeting, held in the Volunteer Hall in Duns earlier this month.

BTN Convener, Alasdair Hutton, said: “BTN kept going right through the Covid pandemic, as far as I am aware, the only Talking Newspaper in Scotland to achieve this, which must make us the best talking newspaper north of the Border.”

Mr Hutton opened the meeting with a tribute to the late Queen before thanking the volunteers for what they had done to improve life for the visually impaired listeners of their service, some of whom were at the meeting.

In his annual report, Mr Hutton explained how the volunteers from the Borders Talking newspaper had gone above and beyond for their listeners during the pandemic.

He said : “A dedicated team of volunteers kept the free service going throughout the Covid lockdown, not only reading from the local papers each week but providing items including stories, poems, songs and music for a weekly magazine to entertain those people who were housebound.”

The service has over 200 listeners receiving the readings and magazines on memory sticks, and more listening via Alexa and the internet.

Mr Hutton said that other Talking Newspapers had stopped operating so BTN maintaining its service for 30 years was remarkable.

He paid particular thanks to Tom Ingoldsby who edited the magazine and the Wendy Moss, manager of the Borders Talking Newspaper, who made sure there were newsreaders each week.

Treasurer Fiona Grieve pointed out that the charity relied entirely on voluntary donations to keep its free service going and reported that the charity’s finances were on a sound footing.

The meeting was entertained by the beautiful singing of Mhairi Lawson, who had also contributed songs to the magazine. Volunteers sold home baking and jam alongside a generous raffle.

The thirtieth birthday was celebrated with a cake baked and decorated by Clova Reid and cut by the charity’s founder Matilda Hall, and one of its original listeners Gillian McKenzie.