A golf day to raise funds for a photographer seriously injured in a car accident has raised more than £1600.
The day – at the beginning of the week – was held on behalf of Derek Blair, a former Daily Record photographer who was freelancing at the time of the accident, in November.
As reported in allmediascotland.com earlier this month, Derek is currently at Astley Ainslie hospital in Edinburgh after spending a few months in intensive care at the Southern General Glasgow following the accident.
His interest in photography began at Kilmarnock College in 1998 while studying an art course. He went on to study photography at the College of Building and Printing in Glasgow. After spells at Haven Studio and Capital Press, he joined the Daily Record (Feb 2004 to Feb 2008 ) where he was their Edinburgh photographer.
During this time he was nominated for News Photographer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards in 2007.
He then turned freelance in March three years ago and was based in the US for the next year primarily for the Telegraph Media Group, covering the election of Barack Obama, the financial crisis that hit Wall Street and the worst hurricane season in years on the island of Haiti.
He returned to Edinburgh two years ago and worked in the UK as a freelance photographer before forming Scotimage with photographer, Gordon Jack.
Said one of the organisers, Kenny Smith: “We have raised in excess of £1,600 for the fund and would like to express our thanks to everyone who turned up on the day to support this event and contribute to the fund.”
He added: “[Car dealers] Arnold Clark put up a car as a hole-in-one prize which was returned to them at the end of the day; no surprise their as most of the players were lucky if they found the green in one never mind the hole. But a rare bottle of whisky, courtesy of Whyte and Mckay, was handed over to Peter Newton, who was nearest the pin on the same hole and hopefully softened the blow of missing out on the car.”
He added: “We intend to hold a further fundraiser of some sort later in the year as we have managed to obtain some fantastic and rare pieces of collectable memorabilia which we hope to auction off and raise further funds for the fund.”
Yesterday's Daily Record publish a letter from the paper's picture editor, Alasdair Baird, adding his thanks to all those involved.
To make a donation, contact Kenny Smith at kennypix@aol.com or on 07809 450119.
