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Caithness News Bulletins January 2003

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Dounreay Staff Donate £880 To Caithness Talking Newspaper Group
Staff at Dounreay have united their resources and donated over £800 to help Caithness  Talking  Newspapers  spread the news to locals and exiles across the UK.

Dounreay's  appeals  and  donations  fund, the employees charities fund and members  of  UKAEA Constabulary all chipped in following the group's recent appeal  for  a  replacement  tape  duplicator  to safeguard and enhance the service to the visually impaired in the far north.

The  group  was  established  nearly  20  years  ago after the fund-raising efforts  of  the founder member Jessan Mackay of Castletown.  The group has no regular income and depends solely upon voluntary donations and bequests.  It  has  steadily  grown  to  become  a  recognised service for the locally visually  impaired  and  a  vital  link  in  keeping them abreast of events happening in their community.

David   Richard-Jones,  secretary  of  CTN,  said:  "The  replacement  tape duplicator  will  enable  us  to  speed up the copying of tapes and get the tapes  to the Royal Mail earlier and thus delivered to our clients the same day  as the newspaper is published.  We are really grateful for the support of  the  Dounreay  management and staff for their generous donations to our fund-raising  project.   I  know that I speak on behalf of all our grateful clients  when  I say that keeping in touch with the local news is even more important  when  poorly  sighted  and  Dounreay's  help  is  invaluable  in maintaining this vital service".

There  are  over  60  visually  impaired  members  of  all  ages, living in Caithness  and  other  parts  of  the  UK,  who  are provided with a weekly 90-minute  tape  of  the  local  news  from  the 'John O'Groat Journal' and 'Caithness  Courier'.   The  tapes,  kindly  donated by Grampian Records in Wick,  are recorded and duplicated each week by a group of unpaid volunteer readers  and  copiers,  in  premises  provided  by The Royal British Legion Scotland  free  of charge. Additional volunteer readers and duplicators are always welcome.

Jessan  Mackay,  who  recently  attended Dounreay to collect the donations, said: "On behalf of all the listeners of CTN I would like to thank everyone at Dounreay for their generous donations to this appeal.  I would also like to thank David Richard-Jones for his continued work as our Secretary and to all whose support makes the service possible. It is much appreciated."

Tina  Wrighton,  who  co-ordinates  Dounreay's  appeals and donations fund, said:  "Dounreay  has  a  long  tradition of providing assistance to a wide range  of  community initiatives in the local area each year. The fact that members  of  the  UKAEA  Constabulary and the employees charities fund also wanted  to  assist the request from Caithness Talking Newspapers underlines just how highly regarded this service is to the community."