A SYDNEY-BASED nurse has scaled new heights to ensure her grandad had a birthday to remember.
Kirsty Denholm knows that her grandad, John Denholm, never misses reading the Peeblesshire News every week.
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So to celebrate his 90th birthday last month, she wanted to ensure she got her message to him in the paper.
The 23-year-old devised a cunning plan around her hike to Base Camp on Everest.
She decided to take a copy of the paper with her in an effort to persuade the editor to include an article wishing her grandad a happy birthday.
Proud gran Beatrice said: “Kirsty is quite a character and it was a lovely surprise when she sent the photo of her with the Peeblesshire News from Mount Everest.
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“My husband and Kirsty’s grandad, John, has always read the Peeblesshire News so it would be great to see Kirsty’s photo in the paper.
“John fell in love with the town when his parents used to being him here on holiday to Soonhope Glen.
“He turned 90 in October and this year we also celebrated our 65th wedding anniversary on American Independence Day.”
John may be a stoorie fit but he has grown wise in Peebles.
As a young teenager he worked on the farm at Soonhope where one long summer he met his bride-to-be Beatrice.
In subsequent years, they enjoyed many holidays there with their young family, playing in and around the converted railway carriage.
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John and his family then settled in Peebles where he worked as a blacksmith at the old 'coonty yaird' on George Street, became an enthusiastic bowler at Glentress and grew to become a 'well kent' face around the town.
Kirsty lives in Sydney but holidays in Peebles whenever she can to catch up with her grandparents.
As a theatre nurse at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, through the COVID years she was determined to enjoy the wide open spaces of the country again and travelled to Canada.
It was during her time in Banff that she had the idea to venture to Base Camp on Everest.
She will return to the Borders in the new year to take up a role in a medical centre around Carlisle.
Beatrice added: “We have one son, Ian, who is Kirsty’s dad and two daughters, Lynn and Julie. We also have one grandson, Jamie, who is Kirsty’s brother.
“The family visited us in September, and I believe that Kirsty will be back in March and we are so looking forward to seeing her again.”
Is this the furthest a Peeblesshire News has travelled? Please send in any photos with a paper from other far off places.
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