Patrons & Life Presidents

Rosemary Long has been messing about with words since she edited the school magazine (in Coatbridge) back in the days when 'How Much is That Doggie in the Window?' was in the Hit Parade. From a local paper she moved to the (long defunct) Glasgow Evening Citizen as assistant woman's editor at the tender age of 19.

Since then she has covered - mainly for the Glasgow Evening Times and The Herald - features, fashion, investigations, opinion columns, TV, theatre reviews, interviews (she once interviewed the scary Barbara Woodhouse, and, on another occasion, Barbara Cartland and her cosseted Pekingese) . "You name it, I seem to have written about it somewhere, sometime", she says. Several times she won Scottish Press Awards for her articles.

In the 1990s she spent eight years in The Gambia, writing about her life there for the (Glasgow) Herald, and producing two books based on her experiences. In the past she wrote an occasional piece, concentrated on tutoring feature-writing and related classes in Strathclyde University's Adult Education unit. However now at the age of 84 in 2024, I am completely retired.

She has a son in social work, a daughter teaching English in Japan, another daughter teaching special needs children in Glasgow - and seven grandchildren.

Gary Hollywood started acting at the ripe age of 12 when he won over viewers in his performance of Scottish Televisions police drama Taggart "Gingerbread". He then went on to do various TV shows including Doctor Finlay, Crime Limited and Down To Earth to name a few, but it was Scottish Televisions soap opera "High Road" that was to make him a household name.

Gary's film credits include "The Boyhood of John Muir" where he played the title role for PBS in the states, "The Winter Guest" where he played alongside Oscar winning actress Emma Thompson and directed by Alan Rickman, "The Flying Scotsman" with Johnny Lee Miller and Brian Cox and most recently Peter Mullen's acclaimed "Neds".

He has worked extensively in the world of theatre over his 21 years but it was whilst working in Brendan’s theatre productions of "Mrs Brown's" trilogy that Gary returned to our households playing Dino Doyle in BBC1’s Mrs Brown’s Boys and picking up a collection of awards along the way, 2 BAFTA’S, TV choice, TV times, IFTA and National Television Awards!

Douglas became a Therapet Volunteer in 1998 and was appointed as Area Representative for Edinburgh and The Lothians in 2000 a position he held until he retired in 2016.  Douglas also served as a Trustee from 2008 to 2020. He was awarded a British Empire Medal in 2017  for service in the community.