IN April 1980 a 20-year-old East Kilbride newspaper journalist eagerly entered a fund-raising competition run by the British Heart Foundation. She ended up winning, and became the charity’s ‘Queen of Hearts’. Her prize was a 10-day holiday in Rio de Janeiro, accompanied by her mother.
The journalist’s name? Lorraine Kelly.
Her novel method of raising funds was to roller-skate from East Kilbride to the Heart of Midlothian, in Edinburgh – a challenging task Lorraine describes in her autobiography.
She had originally decided to walk the 50-odd miles but after a few drinks with her newspaper colleagues resolved to do the journey by roller-skate - despite not actually being able to "roller-skate the length of myself".
Realising that she couldn't back out, she borrowed a "big, old-fashioned" pram and "used it like a Zimmer Frame to enable me to stay on my feet. It took me nearly two days to hirple to Edinburgh".
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