“As a journalist and a general news reporter, you had your favourite stories and those you most definitely didn’t enjoy.

The stories I didn’t enjoy were those which made the headlines at the expense of somebody’s suffering. Too often, in a career spanning four decades, I was sent to cover tragedies, with the newsdesk demanding I knock on the door of the newly bereft to ask for an interview or a picture of the deceased.

However, there were positive stories too and my favourite place to go was Erskine!

By the time I joined Scottish Television I was ‘army-barmy’ and I followed up my encyclopaedic knowledge of things military by joining the Army Reserve, or the Territorial Army as it was then.

People thought I was crazy – ‘You could get called up!’ 

That was 27 years ago and I am about to embark upon my final job in the Army which, all being well, will take me to my 60^th birthday when I will go to the Quartermaster and hand in my kit.

I served on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and to command men and women in a war is my greatest privilege. My next greatest privilege is being part of the mechanism to help those men and women after their service.

Which takes me neatly back to Erskine. As a TV reporter, I was very fortunate because the STV newsdesk was myopic to the military and if there was ever any kind of story which involved a tank, Trident or Tornado, the cry ‘send Edwards,’ went up.

I was on board HMS Vanguard as she sailed up the Clyde to Faslane for the first time, I flew supersonic in an RAF Tornado and rolled around army bases the world over, covering the latest twist and turn.

My first visit as a reporter to Erskine would have been in 1996, the 80^thanniversary of the Battle of the Somme and at that time there were WW1 veterans living there. It was a privilege to listen to these men’s stories, harrowing though they were. I am so proud that I had a small part in ensuring those memories were documented.

Advance 25 years and my days in the front line of the media world were about to end. I had had four decades in newspapers, radio and TV and that allowed me to retire in comfort and be at home all day with my elderly mother Margaret, who had been living with a diagnosis of dementia. She had been a nurse all her days and it was a huge privilege to care for her, I hope, in a way which she would have approved of, given her very high standards.

Not long after she passed away aged 91, a year into my retirement, I realised I had become a totally different person.

I had transitioned from having the most stressful lifestyle with umpteen deadlines per day, to one where I washed, dressed, toileted, fed and watered my mother and tried to keep her stimulated all day, to one where I suddenly struggled to find anything which occupied my mind or body beyond strumming my guitar every so often, or arranging my books in alphabetical order.

Then the remarkable Ian Cumming lifted the phone out of the blue and I was invited to become a trustee of my favourite place.

I was buoyed by the memories of the fantastic veterans, who had lived such amazing lives in times of global conflict. I was bolstered by how gentle and kind the staff were. I recalled how warm and comfortable and homely the rooms were. I couldn’t wait to get started.

But by then the COVID pandemic had struck and I have served my first year as a trustee sitting in my study at home conducting meetings by Zoom and not, as I had so wanted, to be there in person.

Now I am delighted have had the first trustee contact with the charity I hold so dear.

The subject matter has been the governance of a multi-million-pound organisation which does amazing work for fabulous people in a time of huge global challenge.

And it’s a challenge which has been met, front and centre by a remarkable team.”