Sharleen and Bridget join crusade
by John Dingwall from The Daily Record - 6 December 2002

CHART star Sharleen Spiteri and Scotland's First Lady Brigit McConnell have backed the campaign to build the nation's second children's hospice on the banks of Loch Lomond.

Along with film star Ewan McGregor, they want to overturn the decision by Loch Lomond National Park to block planning permission for the hospice for terminally ill kids.

Texas singer Sharleen said: "It's so disappointing and frustrating.

"There should be exceptions to the rule - Rachel House is, of course, a very special case. I hope good sense will prevail."

A patron of Rachel House, Sharleen donated £100,000 from her band's Millennium concert in Edinburgh on Hogmanay 1999.

She also regularly visits Rachel House and often cooks meals for the kids.

The singer is a mum herself after the birth of daughter Misty Kyd in August and knows many of the parents who attend the hospice.

Sharleen said: "The kids know me and I don't ever stand on ceremony with them. Some of the kids are really ill and are in bed, others might be too tired to see me.

"But there are a lot of children that I have come to know in the years since I have been coming here."

Brigit McConnell rarely speaks out for fear of being accused of talking for husband First Minister Jack McConnell.

But as she knows well the people who run our first hospice, Rachel House, she felt she had to go public.

She revealed: "I feel very passionate about this and it is not second-hand, I have been to Rachel House.

"It is easy to sound patronising and gushing but the work these people do and the incredible spirit of both families and children is just genuinely humbling. It's a real honour to have met them.

"Any delay in this project would be so harmful for extremely vulnerable children. For them time is not the same as it is for us.

"Every second of it is special which is all the more reason I would hope that the park authority will do the right thing.

"The lesson these children can teach us is that every second of time is precious. They are an inspiration."


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