Latest news with #Cults
Times
22-05-2025
- General
- Times
Nan Shepherd is on £5 note — buy her home for 100,000 of them
For more than eight decades one of Scotland's greatest mystic poets and novelists of the 20th century lived in an elegant Victorian granite five-bedroom semi on the outskirts of Aberdeen. Nan Shepherd spent her life in Dunvegan, in Cults, with its lush gardens and great bay windows opening up spectacular views of Lower Deeside. Now the property where she moved shortly after she was born and only left shortly before her death at 88 in 1981 is up for sale, at offers over £490,000. The writer, whose work has enjoyed a 21st-century resurgence in popularity and respect, inherited the home from her wealthy parents. Coming of age during the First World War — when men were in short supply — Shepherd never married. But, eschewing
Press and Journal
07-05-2025
- Health
- Press and Journal
Brave and Courage return: 48 cancer survivors join the north-east's most inspiring club
This week at P&J Live in Aberdeen, 24 men and 24 women from across the north-east will join a very special club. Over four nights — the men on Thursday and Friday and the women on Saturday and Sunday — they will take to the stage for the pair of annual fundraising fashion shows organised by Aberdeen cancer charity Friends of Anchor. The club already has hundreds of members. Brave, which is the men's show, began in 2017, while the women's edition, Courage on the Catwalk, started even earlier in 2013. But membership to this exclusive set comes at a price. To gain admission, you need to have had a cancer diagnosis. 'It's a thank you,' explains Allen Shaw, 52, from Cults, who is part of this year's Brave show. 'It's for my wife, my daughters, my friends — the people who held everything together when I couldn't.' From Beach Ballroom to P&J Live Brave and Courage on the Catwalk are now among the most high-profile charity events in the north-east calendar. What began as a modest fundraiser at Aberdeen's Beach Ballroom has grown into a major production at P&J Live, with lights, music, choreography and an audience of more than 1,000 at each show. Courage on the Catwalk at P&J Live last year. Image: Darrell Benns/DC Thomson Last year alone, the events raised £360,000 for Friends of Anchor, helping to fund cancer research, improve patient wellbeing and support clinical care across the north-east. Allen is typical of the people who take part in Brave and Courage — each with a story that's entirely their own, yet united by their determination to face cancer head-on. An inspector with the Scottish Police Federation, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2022 after he experienced numbness in his fingers and severe back pain, symptoms he initially chalked up to age and his rugby-playing days. Scans revealed a shadow on his lung. At first, doctors suspected lung cancer and Allen and his wife Kate, a specialist breast cancer nurse practitioner, were told it could be terminal. Allen Shaw at home in Cults. Image: Kath Flannery/DC Thomson 'That moment… we genuinely thought I might have six months left,' he says. 'I was lying on the sofa, unable to walk, doing flashcards with my daughter while she studied for exams. We didn't tell our girls for weeks. I didn't want to distract them or scare them.' What Courage and Brave do for their stars Now in remission after six months of chemotherapy, Allen says taking part in Brave has been a hugely positive part of his recovery. He's embraced the experience wholeheartedly, from the loud group chats with his fellow Brave models to choosing a pink-accented suit that he jokes makes him look 'like the man from Del Monte.' 'The camaraderie is amazing. We're all different – some of the guys are in remission, some are still undergoing treatment, some are palliative – but we get each other. You don't have to explain what you've been through.' The stars of Brave 2024 at the P&J Live last May. Image: Kenny Elrick/DC Thomson And when he steps out on stage on Thursday night, a newly-minted member of the Brave and Courage club, he'll be surrounded by people who know exactly how he feels. 'On the night, when we're doing it, it'll be, 'We're here, boys, we've done it',' he says. 'We've come together and we've made it.' Applications to take part in Brave and Courage next year are now open. Click here to register your interest.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Yahoo
St. Lawrence Co. DA says John Free's death was a suicide
CANTON, N.Y. (WWTI) – St. Lawrence County officials said that accused killer John Free's death was via suicide in his jail cell. In a Tuesday afternoon press conference, District Attorney Gary Pasqua and Sheriff Rick Engle gave an update Free's death. The 51-year-old Free was found dead in in a St. Lawrence County Jail cell on the afternoon of Friday, March 14. St. Lawrence County man indicted for murder found dead in prison Officials said that Free was 'having a medical emergency in his cell' just after 2 p.m. on Friday. Pasqua said all life-saving measures were taken, but proved to be unsuccessful. The district attorney declined to say on how Free asphyxiated himself Free was indicted back in January for second-degree murder among other charges of an alleged killing of 58-year-old John Barr of Rensselaer Falls in April 2024. Barr's body was eventually found after a welfare check by New York State Police. Free was also a former worker at the Ivy Ridge Academy in Oswegatchie, which was the subject of a Netflix documentary called 'The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping' in March of last year. The New York State Police and attorney general's office will conduct an investigation on Free's death. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
