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drawer’ Irene explained. ‘Fionna edited and typed up this manuscript and it was published by Birlinn as “Four Ducks on a Pond”.
Before becoming a guide Fionna had a variety of jobs; freelance fashion model, gift shop manager and word processor operator, for a firm of quantity surveyors, among them. She and her husband Mark married in 1965 and had three daughters Abby, Iona and Lucetta who were brought up in the West End of Glasgow. In the early 1990s Fionna became a volunteer guide in Glasgow Cathedral just before she gained her STGA Blue Badge in 1993. Her guiding career was very varied including a memorable tour in Lochaber helping American “Camerons” to trace their ancestry which even involved a helicopter trip. She accepted with alacrity the opportunity to be a tour manager in New England. This also gave her time with her three daughters who now lived in that area. A little later the three girls all married Americans and in time they gave Mark and Fionna nine grand-children. Understandably the U.S.A. became their holiday destination.’
Another guide, Diane Rose, remembers that some years ago Fionna was the subject of a full page spread in the Herald about tourism. ‘She was photographed in front of the Gallery of Modern Art beside the Duke of Wellington's statue which went well with her quirky personality and excellent sense of humour,’ said Diane. ‘She also worked yearly for the Earl Haig Fund/ Poppy Scotland and a visit to her house in the autumn always saw it strewn with collecting tins. Fionna was a very enthusiastic, able and popular guide despite battling for 19 years a very rare cancer of the blood called Waldenström Macroglobulinemia. She volunteered to raise money for the Leukaemia Research Fund because of the excellent care she had received at the Western Infirmary and Gartnavel General. Fionna also regularly wrote articles for the International Waldenström Macroglobulinemia Foundation newsletter. She died in April 2018.’
Gillian Brear qualified at the same time as Fionna and acted as a mentor for many guides over the years. Before becoming a guide Gillian qualified as a nurse. She was active in organizing medical support for the people of Nicaragua. Gillian guided in Italian and Spanish and for many years she worked virtually non-stop over the summer on extended tours, speaking Italian and Spanish on the same coach. Sadly she died in 2015 at the age of 64 after a long battle with cancer.
Another graduate of 1993 was Ken Fyfe who was later to become chairman of the STGA between 1999 and 2001. Although born in Glasgow, he spent the early years of his life in the Borders, living in St Boswells and attending school in Galashiels. Later he moved to Edinburgh for six years before returning to Glasgow to study Naval Architecture at Strathclyde University. His industrial career started with
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