Rugby legend and MND campaigner Doddie Weir has pulled out of an appearance to promote his autobiography due to a mystery 'illness'.
The former Scotland international was scheduled to appear at Pitlochry Festival Theatre for the Winter Words event alongside co-author Stewart Weir tomorrow.
But the theatre announced that Mr Weir would not be attending via their social media sites.
They said: "Sadly, due to illness, we have to announce Doddie Weir will not be able to attend Winter Words tomorrow. Stewart Weir, Doddie's ghost-writer, will still take the session and continue to talk about Doddie's book, his relationship with Doddie, and the process of ghost-writing.
READ MORE: Rugby legend Doddie Weir to be given an honorary degree
"We send our very best wishes to Doddie Weir, and look forward to sharing news of the amount raised for his charity from the donations."
Tickets to the event cost £10 with £5 of the proceeds going directly to the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation set up after Mr Weir was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2016.
Working tirelessly to raise funds to aid research into the progressive condition, Mr Weir is a regular face at events organised to raise funds for his charity.
On February 1st he attended a gala dinner organised in his honour at former school, Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools in Edinburgh, which raised more than £90,000 to be split between the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation and the school's Access to Excellence bursery fund.
READ MORE: Scottish rugby legend Doddie Weir receives Edinburgh Award
Mr Weir's autobiography charts his rise to fame on the pitch from his childhood in the Borders. In it, he speaks candidly about his diagnosis with MND, an incurable condition that stops signals from the brain reaching the muscles.
It was announced earlier this month that Mr Weir's foundation had doubled its donation to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, adding a further £100,000 to its initial contribution of £100,000 previously gifted.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel