Badenoch publisher's £100k backing for local bursaries
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Aviemore’s globe-conquering sailor Iain Macneil is helping others to navigate their way to academic success.
His Witherby Publishing Group has donated £105,000 to establish bursaries and scholarships which will help talented individuals from rural communities across the Highlands and Islands access UHI (University of the Highlands and Islands) courses over the next three years.
Students will be able to apply for bursaries of up to £1000 to buy equipment, attend conferences, go on field trips or meet unexpected costs.
The fund will also create an ambassador programme to inspire and empower young people in rural communities.
Mr Macneil, who in his trusty MV Astra last year became the first man to circumnavigate the planet ‘backwards’ – eastwards – left Castlebay High School on the Isle of Barra at 16 to join the Merchant Navy.
Dealing with dyslexia, he found it difficult to read training manuals, but did not let that hold him back.
He enjoyed a successful career at sea before going on to develop software to help other seafarers through their maritime exams.
In 2008, he and his wife, Kat Heathcote, acquired Witherby Publishing, the London-based oldest independent publishers in English and the world’s largest independent marine publisher.
Mr Macneil was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from UHI. He said: “It was a moving experience for me at the graduation ceremony at Eden Court to see so many people from the Highlands and Islands being helped to attain further and higher education, regardless of their age.”
