Guests and members of the St Maughold lodge of Freemasons raised money at a ladies’ evening at the Mount Murray Hotel in Santon for two charities.

They were Macmillan Cancer Support and Isle of Man Breast Care.

Pictured from right to left is Pat Cook (Macmillan Cancer Support), centre Graham Lawrence, St Maughold lodge master, Linda Stricket and Paulene Lamb Isle of Man Breast Care.

A former contestant on the BBC’s Apprentice programme is to visit the Isle of Man to promote her range of skin care products.

Susan Ma was a runner up in the series which aired in 2011 and sees budding entrepreneurs compete in a variety of business challenges to win a highly paid job working for Amstrad entrepreneur Alan Sugar.

Though she was pipped to the winning post by another contestant, Miss Ma’s business caught the attention of Lord Sugar who has given it his backing.

‘I started my Tropic Skin Care range back in 2007 - so it was four years before going on the Apprentice,’ she said.

‘But I’ve been experimenting and making these types of products since I was 15.’

Each product goes through a lengthy development process which involves collaboration with cosmetic chemists as well as a great deal of reading and researching ingredients.

‘It takes at least 200 attempts to get the final result so there is a lot of hard work involved in the process,’ she said.

‘It’s a bit like complex cooking but very sophisticated and requiring knowledge of chemistry.

‘It is a matter of months and countless hours to develop a product but I don’t see it as a job because I enjoy it. I’m always researching it because it’s something I’m passionate about,’ she said.

Born in Australia, Miss Ma moved to Croydon with her parents when she was 13. Her products which use a range of natural plant oils and other ingredients are produced in Surrey and are sold via a team of ambassadors who organise parties, so-called pamper evenings and other social get-togethers.

Nationally in the UK there are around 850 ambassadors including a small team who Miss Ma will meet up with in the Isle of Man. The hunt is also on to add to the team of ambassadors so she is inviting any would-be entrepreneurs along to a presentation where they can try the products and find out more about the business opportunity.

‘Women of all backgrounds can do this and build a business to earn some extra income. It’s flexible so there is potential to earn anything from a couple of hundred pounds to 10s of thousands,’ she said.

The free presentation is at the Mount Murray golf club from 1.30pm to 4.30pm on Sunday (August 18). To book, call 695330.

Successful candidates can be product ambassadors,

The Isle of Man branch of the Burma Star Association has held its annual memorial service at St John’s.

A wreath was laid at the monument in the Arboretum on Sunday to commemorate V.J.Day, August 15, 1945.

Attending the service were the Reverend Chris Belfield, veterans Gordon Allen, Michael Link, Ken Corlett, Norman Moore, Burma Star Association secretary and treasurer, Sheila Healey, Patron, Sir Laurence New and Lady Anna New.

The first meeting of the island’s Burma Star Association was held at the Castle Mona Hotel inDouglas in 1979 with more than 70 Burma Star members attending.

Regular meetings have been held at various venues since.

At a meeting held in Peel, Ken Corlett, one of the founder members, suggested that a monument should be built in memory of all the Manxmen who served in Burma during the Second World War.

The monument was unveiled in 1995.

The public are rallying round to support Grace Teare, a 26-year-old undergoing treatment for cervical cancer, and her family.

Grace, who lives in Douglas with her partner Damon Kilsby and their 22-month-old son Robbie was diagnosed in June.

She was told her 10cm tumour was inoperable and the cancer was third stage as it’s affecting other organs.

Grace is currently spending each week at Clatterbridge Hospital on The Wirral having chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and then coming back to the island at the weekend.

She launched an online appeal at www.letscrowdit.com to raise £3,000 for Damon and Robbie to be at her side while she was treated.

So far, the total raised stands at £1,475.

And now Remember Me, a charity launched by Lesley Turnbull to grant wishes for the children of sick or terminally ill parents has stepped in.

Lesley said the charity has granted Robbie’s wish and pledged to cover the travel and accommodation costs for Damon and Robbie while visiting Grace in the UK.

And the support doesn’t stop there.

David ‘Scotty’ Williams has organised the first of a number of fundraisers in Grace’s name, with the money going to Remember Me to help Grace’s family and others who need support.

The ‘GT 3000’ ride out of the TT Course for motorbikes, cars, scooters, trikes or any other method of transport takes place tomorrow (Sunday).

Participants should meet in the pit lane at the Grandstand, in Glencrutchery Road, Douglas, from midday to 12.30pm for a 1pm start. There is a suggested donation of £3.

There will also be a raffle, with prizes from local companies including Jaks, Elite Fitness, Utopia and Riverside Ceramics.

There may be more people in work than ever before, but unemployment is not at a record low.

Treasury officials say this apparent discrepancy is due to the island’s growing population and a skills shortage.

Carl Hawker, assistant financial controller, explained: ‘The population does not stay static.

‘Therefore, if the population as a whole is growing, there can be new record numbers in employment, with a static, increasing or decreasing level of unemployment, depending upon whether the general growth in employment numbers is sufficient to create jobs for all the extra people who want them.’

There is also a mismatch between the jobs being created and the skills of the unemployed.

Mr Hawker said ‘the jobs being created do not sometimes match the skills of the people requiring the jobs, and this can prevent job creation directly reducing unemployment’.

In addition, he said that there are ‘demographic issues’, in respect of larger or smaller cohorts of people coming in or out of employment, and wider changes such as more mature people, or parents choosing to work that can cause an increase in employment without necessarily impacting levels of unemployment.

Mr Hawker said: ‘So while on the surface the two figures look like they should be linked, in practice you can have increasing employment and increasing unemployment at the same time if there are enough people looking for work to grow both.’

He added: ‘Having record levels of employment is still good news.

‘It means more people who want jobs are getting them, and that there are more opportunities for all those seeking work, even if some may need retraining to move into them.’

The latest quarterly report, produced for the Council of Ministers by the Treasury’s Economic Affairs Division and covering the three months to the end of June, states that ‘the numbers in employment, as per tax records, are at a record high’.

At the end of July, unemployment in the island stood at 2.4 per cent.

There were 1,055 people out of work – a fall by one person on the previous month.

A total of 715 vacancies were notified to the Job Centre during the month and 335 vacancies held on file at the end of the month.

Residents living in Maine Road, Port Erin, staged a protest on Monday against another portable cabin going on the verge of McArd Contractors builders’ yard.

Retired GP Veronica Brewis, who lives in Maine Road, said: ‘I flipped yesterday [Monday]. I decided I would make a point, I’m not happy.’

Dr Brewis sat on the grass verge where the portable cabin was destined to go and was joined by fellow resident Sean Cole. McArd Contractors called the police, who turned up and the situation was soon resolved.

Her frustration, which is shared by several residents, is over the state of the boundary outside the yard, which they have said for many years is unkempt and unsafe and needs tidying up.

Several months ago, McArd Contractors owner Keith McArd moved two portable cabins elsewhere, but on Monday a new one was put on the grass verge outside the builders’ yard.

In April, resident Norman Osbaldeston organised a meeting with the local authority and relevant government departments in an attempt to resolve the situation. The authority is waiting for government departments to report back and then hopes to organise a meeting with residents.

The dispute is over where the boundary of the buildings on the unadopted Maine Road lie and whether the verge belongs to McArd or not.

Dr Brewis said: ‘This is a civil dispute. I do not want Mr McArd’s business to suffer, it’s not personal against him, it’s a boundary dispute. He maintains he could do what he likes, he owns to the middle of the road, which is great if he does, he could build a proper wall which would be a solution. It’s not in the land registry. The Clucas Trust [who originally owned the land] dispute they own it. It’s a dispute over no man’s land ... He [Mr McArd] said: “It’s our land [to the centre of the road]”. I said: “That’s disputed”.’

She added: ‘It’s a dispute over what’s happening to the verge. I have no issue with Mr McArd’s yard, it was there before he was born, that’s not the point, it’s the verge ownership and what he could do with it. The deeds say we only own to the boundary and are responsible to the middle of the road. It’s a very grey area and that’s what I want resolved so we know where we stand.’

Dr Brewis added: ‘This is a nice neighbourly area. I just want this issue to be resolved once and for all.

‘I was not going to sit there all day, I just wanted to make an issue and get his attention.

‘It’s the fact he puts his debris on the verge, our contention is it’s a verge, he contends he owns it.

‘It will be resolved in due course, it just takes such a long time, yesterday [Monday] I had enough, and decided to do something I would not normally do.’

Port Erin commissioners’ chairman Lorna MacKellar said: ‘We are generally supportive of the residents to have the roadside verge around the builder’s yard cleared up and we have had the environmental health officer there on a couple of occasions to look at the situation.

‘The situation with the status of Maine Road really needs to be clarified and resolved. I understand several areas of the Department of Infrastructure have been working on this for a number of months and we await the outcome of their decision.’

Firefighters were called to the Ronaldsway Aircraft Company in Ballasalla yesterday (Thursday) afternoon.

At about 1.15pm, pumping appliance from Castletown Station was sent after the alarm was raised at the company.

There had been a fire in a titanium filter bench which is used to deburr titanium components

The fire had been extinguished by a member of the onsite maintenance team who emptied two dry powder extinguishers on the fire before evacuating the building.

However, the factory quickly filled with smoke and this became a major challenge for the fire fighting personnel to ventilate.

Using its own positive pressure ventilation fans alongside two heavy duty electric fans, the Castletown fire crew ventilated the factory section by section.

Full ventilation of the building was achieved within an hour and following repairs to broken fire alarm call points the fire alarm system was put back online.

Station Officer Kirkham who was duty officer for the incident stated that: ‘I was impressed by the evacuation procedures of the Ronaldsway Aircraft Company and would like to thank Andy Bain from the Ronaldsway maintenance team who was a valuable asset to the fire personnel who attended the incident.’

Douglas RNLI lifeboat was launched on Thursday at 5.50pm to go to the aid of a 10m fishing vessel four miles east of the capital.

The RNLB Sir William Hillary launched into worsening sea conditions to go to the aid of the fishing vessel which was suffering what the RNLI call ‘fuel starvation’.

With a mist coming down and the rising sea conditions, the boat had called for assistance while they continued to try to remedy the fault.

In charge on his first call out since recently qualifying as a deputy second coxswain was Graeme Cushnie.

He said: ‘Utilising our RNLI training we confirmed the casualty’s location using radar and the direction finding capabilities of VHF radio. When on scene a tow was quickly established in what were relatively challenging sea conditions with a significant swell and building sea. When we reached the more sheltered conditions of the harbour, the crew shortened the tow and brought the casualty vessel alongside the Sir William Hilary to be berthed.’

Ramsey’s lifeboat, the RNLB Ann and James Ritchie, was also launched yesterday to go to the assistance of a distressed yacht.

The 30-foot yacht with three people on board was on passage from Peel to Whitehaven.

As the vessel was rounding the Point of Ayre the anchor bolt securing the forestay to the deck sheared and the mast was at risk of collapsing.

The forestay is part of the rigging that holds the mast in place. No-one on board was injured in the incident.

The skipper made a radio distress call and Liverpool Coastguard requested the launch of Ramsey Lifeboat. The lifeboat launched at 1.08pm.

Using its engine the yacht had been able to make some headway towards Ramsey and met with the lifeboat, under the command of second coxswain Rob Brew, about three miles north-east of Ramsey.

The lifeboat took the yacht in tow at 1:40pm and towed it to the visitor mooring buoys in Ramsey bay.

This was the second call-out for the Ann and James Ritchie in 24 hours.

Ballanard Road in Douglas will re-open to traffic by 4.30pm today (Friday).

The Department of Infrastructure said that the road and footway reconstruction works between Glencrutchery Road traffic lights and Norwood Drive had now been completed and the works to the side roads would be finished early next week.

Further footway works between Barrule Road and Norwood Drive will continue through the Manx Grand Prix period with temporary traffic lights with carriageway resurfacing works starting in early September.

A spokesman said: ‘Helped by the generally good weather and focussed work effort, the scheme is ahead of programme and it is expected that the works will be completed by mid October approximately one month ahead of the original programme.

‘The department would like to thank motorists and residents for their ongoing patience and co-operation during the final stages of this project. If you have any concerns or queries regarding these works, please phone 850000.’

Gourmets can go global without having to leave the island when Douglas hosts a continental food and craft fair.

From Saturday, August 24, through to Sunday September 1st expect ostrich, impala, wild boar, paella, specialist coffees and teas and a whole host of other food products from around the world, along with handicrafts from Peru, plants, shrubs and bulbs from Holland and Fairtrade furniture and decorative items.

The fair will stretch along the length of Castle Street and Marina Road with trading hours 9am to 7pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 6pm on Sunday.

Town centre manager Michelle O’Malley said: ‘Experience of previous events similar to this in the town has shown that they increase footfall and serve as a prompt for visitors to explore all the shopping opportunities in the town centre as well as discover Douglas’s growing café culture.

‘We’re delighted that in tandem with the fair Tower House has space for local traders and that over the bank holiday weekend the Manx Craft Guild will be in the Strand Centre and artisan markets will be in Douglas Market Hall, which is also hosting a vintage fashion fair on Saturday August 31st and Sunday September 1st. Douglas is home to the island’s only covered market and these two upcoming events provide a rare opportunity to showcase all manner of Manx crafts in a unique single retailing space.

‘We’re also pleased to be supporting the continental food fair as clearly more and more specialist traders are recognising the appeal of Douglas as a shopping and leisure destination. Encouragingly it’s an appeal that’s growing all the time as the benefits of regeneration are beginning to have a tangible impact, with Douglas town centre being seen increasingly as a vibrant retail and social space.’

Douglas-based fund manager Creechurch Capital helped raise to £10,938 for two charities by sponsoring a local event.

The event, Hizzy’s Honour, was held at the Villa Marina to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of the former British Superbike Champion and 11-time winner of the Isle of Man TT, Steve Hislop.

To celebrate Steve’s life and his contribution to the world of motorsport, Steve’s former partner, Kelly Bailey, and their two sons, Aaron and Connor, arranged a charity evening as a tribute to their father.

The evening, which was held in association with Creechurch Capital, included a Q&A session with former British and World Super Bike Champion, Neil Hodgson, Ian Lougher, who holds the record for the most TT starts and the voice of TT Radio, Roy Moore.

There was also a charity auction, with many of the prizes donated by the sport’s most renowned riders, as well as a number of the evening’s guests.

The evening raised was shared between two charities that Steve supported during his years of motor racing, the Isle of Man Hyperbaric Chamber and the MGP Helicopter Fund (MGP Supporters Club Isle of Man).

Kelly Bailey, who organised the event on behalf of her sons, Aaron and Connor, said: ‘We had an amazing evening and raised a fantastic amount of money for two charities that Steve was proud to support.’

‘A lot of hard work went into organising this event, and with the help of our sponsor, Creechurch Capital, we managed to support two causes which I know Steve would have very been proud of.

#Myself and the boys have to say a big thank you to our sponsors, Mannin Media, Lee Watson and Tim Glover, for all their support.

Stewart Quayle, business development manager at Creechurch Capital added: ‘We were delighted to support Kelly, Aaron and Connor. The success of the evening was down to the hard work and commitment that Kelly put into organising the event and we are very proud that all her hard work paid off.’

Pictured: Connor Hislop, Bob Taylor (MGP Supporters’ Club), Dean Cooke (Hyperbaric Chamber), Aaron Hislop, Stewart Quayle of Creechurch Capital and Kelly Bailey

Historically low interest rates are to stay for the next three years at least.

And while that’s good news for mortgage holders and businesses, it’s bad news for government revenues and pensioners who rely on their savings.

Mark Carney, the new governor of the Bank of England, announced last week that interest rates would be held at their present record low level of 0.5 per cent until the UK’s unemployment rate falls to at least 7 per cent.

Under its latest economic forecasts the Bank does not expect this target to be hit until the second half of 2016, suggesting that the cost of borrowing throughout the economy will remain low for three more years.

Paul Chambers, chairman of the Isle of Man Pensioners’ Association, said it would mean a real struggle for those on limited savings and those who do not receive the Manx pension supplement.

He said: ‘Given the views of the new governor of the Bank of England’s statement that interest rates will remain at historically low rates until unemployment falls, clearly there will be an impact on the income of all pensioners who rely on their savings.

‘But for those who are on limited savings and low or fixed pensions and do not receive the Isle of Man Pension Supplement they will be facing a real struggle.

‘Given the much vaunted “Freedom to Flourish”, why are there are so few in government who are concerned about this group?’

Low interest rates impact on government revenues in two ways. Firstly, they mean that less interest is earned on deposits and, secondly, the tax take is reduced if saving rates go down – although that is offset by reduced costs of providing mortgage interest tax relief.

Chief Minister Allan Bell MHK said of the Bank of England’s new policy: ‘It’s good news for businesses and mortgage holders, but for investors and people living off investment income, it will mean a further contraction in income levels.

‘There will be a reduction in the amount of tax revenues to government and further pressure on Treasury revenues at a time when we are struggling to balance the budget.’

Previous Bank of England governor Mervyn King resisted offering any guidance on the future path of interest rates.

But the new policy, described as ‘forward guidance’, aims to give households and businesses confidence that could spur economic growth and jobs creation.

Continent 8 Technologies is sponsoring the award for Public Sector Achievement at this year’s Isle of Man Newspapers’ Awards for Excellence.

‘Continent 8 Technologies is delighted to sponsor the Public Sector Achievement category at this year’s Awards for Excellence,’ said chief executive officer Michael Tobin.

‘We understand what a challenging time it is for Isle of Man Government and this is an opportunity to recognise what a fantastic job government employees are doing and enables us to highlight the significant and positive contribution they make to this great island.’

Incorporated in the Isle of Man in 2006, Continent 8 is a truly global operation with data centre locations in Montreal, London, Paris, Dublin, Malta, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Singapore and here in the island.

Continent 8 has been providing complex, reliable and innovative connectivity and hosting services to customers in highly-regulated markets for the past 15 years.

The company has developed in-house expertise servicing some of the world’s largest online businesses across a number of business verticals and are keen to share knowledge and experiences with the island business community, as its strength is its Isle of Man presence.

Continent 8 is currently undertaking a major expansion on the island, both in terms of physical infrastructure and an increase in staffing numbers, in response to customer demand.

‘We are increasing our focus here on the island with investment in number of new staff members in key areas including account management, product development and network engineers which will broaden our local skills base,’ said Michael.

‘This will enable us to offer our full range of products and services to the island’s business community from our Douglas data centre. Becoming a sponsor for the Awards for Excellence is another way of showing our commitment and support for the Isle of Man as a jurisdiction. We recognise and value the unique proposition the Isle of Man offers to global companies such as Continent 8, and appreciate that the Isle of Man Government is key to this.’

Continent 8 is a major award-winner in its own right, with a background as a service provider in the e-gaming sector, one of the most demanding in terms of quality and resilience.

The company has won Data Centre of the Year for the last four years in a row at the e-Gaming Review B2B (business to business) Awards.

Operating a privately owned and managed data network connecting all of the company’s data centres, Continent 8 is able to provide customers with end to end service level from one single provider, complemented by a range of value added services.

‘We understand that our customers expect excellence from us and we want to support and encourage other organisations on the island that also go the extra mile to achieve excellence,’ said Michael.

Do you work in the public sector? Have you entered yet?

Last year’s Isle of Man Newspapers’ Awards for Excellence saw a record number of entries from the public sector, both in the Public Sector Achievement category and other categories.

Chief Minister Allan Bell says: ‘Last year, I was especially pleased to see that so many public sector employees entered – and won – awards.

‘The people of the Isle of Man rightly expect the highest standards from public sector employees and whilst they would normally demonstrate this through their interaction with the public and the services they provide, the Awards also give a chance to showcase achievements that the public might not otherwise have been aware of.’

There were successes for the Department of Economic Development in the Marketing and PR Effectiveness category and the Isle of Man Aircraft Registry won the award for Customer Service. The award for Public Sector Achievement was won by the Isle of Man Youth Justice Team.

The team, led by the police, brought together professionals from four government departments and won the award for its work in helping to prevent offending and re-offending by children and young people.

Entry forms for this year’s Awards for Excellence can be downloaded from the Isle of Man Newspapers’ website at www.iomtoday.co.im/afe

Despite the early hour it’s a hive of activity as the varied mix of folk from all walks of life stand around chatting and tucking into a buffet style breakfast.

But it’s not long before we are called to order and around 30 of us take our seats.

I have joined the Manannan chapter of Business Network International (BNI) for their weekly gathering.

As Business News recently reported on these pages, this cross-section of enthusiastic people have generated referral business which has totalled more than £1 million.

I was invited along to the meeting by membership co-ordinator Martin Corkish. A number of other first-time visitors sat expectantly for proceedings to begin.

BNI had decided to open up their doors to a select number of visitors to have a look at how their weekly meetings operate.

Also at the meeting was Carmen Parkinson from Lancashire. She said there were thousands of chapters all over the world.

She told me: ‘We are in 46 countries and it’s a really popular multinational organisation.

‘It’s just a word of mouth organisation. Everything is done by referrals. Wehave hundreds of thousands of members.

‘I’m a director of BNI so I look after four groups and this is one of them. I come over every month and offer support.’

She said she was particularly fond of the Isle of Man chapter and the work it does.

Paul Maddocks, local director of the group, told Business News why the meetings are held so early: ‘Our aim is to start early finishing by about 8.30am so it doesn’t impact on people’s working days.

‘It gives everybody in the room the chance to catch more business. It’s every Tuesday morning at this hour with the exception of the TT and Christmas.’

Business people from all over the island travel to the meetings.

The meeting I attended was well organised and zipped along at a fast pace, the 90 minutes whizzed by in no time at all.

Mr Maddocks was at the helm chairing the meeting which is orderly and good-natured. He sat at the top table accompanied ably by Anne Marie Hanna, secretary/treasurer, and managing director of Ability Plus employment agency, and our UK visitor Carmen Parkinson.

One of the key factors is that each member represents just one sector of business such as accounting, building, recruitment, finance, insurance, estate agency, electrical contracting, removals, landscape gardening and so on.

Members stand up to have their say but things move along crisply because they only have 60 seconds to make their specific point.

Charlie Turner of Intersport, Strand Street, Douglas, is in charge of the clock on a smartphone, which counts down the 60 seconds in which members make their individual points. A bell sounds if they overrun their alloted time.

Brian McManus of Quest Landscape Services gets up to announce he has a stand at the forthcoming Manx show and asks his colleagues to pass on the word.

Most of the other members get up to say something. The philosophy is based around thinking of ways in which you can help someone else first and finding out what it is they need or what introductions they need to help them grow their business.

I listened as business folk spoke, all keeping to their 60 seconds.

One was looking for folk to migrate to a cloud; an estate agent told how he has a client ‘with a generous budget’ who wants to find a home with a sea view; another business person was looking for an introduction to one of the big banks and others told of their plans and projects.

And when they had all had their say it was the turn of the assembled guests to be given the chance to introduce themselves including, to my surprise, myself.

I imagined myself being on the legendary radio show Just a Minute as I stood to give my completely unrehearsed impromptu spiel. There was no deviation, no hesitation but maybe a little repetition as I mentioned this newspaper’s business pages more than once. Eyeing Charlie Turner’s clock a couple of feet from me I managed to finish bang on time . . . and earned a round of applause in the process. Perhaps this was more out of sympathy than anything else!

I have to say it does all seem to be a refreshing change and business was conducted briskly with no chance for waffle. Certainly everybody enjoys themsleves but there is a serious aim at the end of it all.

And it certainly seems to be a winning formula as Mr Corkish announced that in the last week alone members generated more than £30,000 worth of referrals.

Business cards are literally flying around and later in the meeting members criss-cross the room passing testimonials and referral results to each other. There’s a great feeling of optimism circulating the room.

Every week an ‘Oscar’ statuette is presented to the winning 60 second slot and Mr McManus was delighted to be chosen. He told me he would be responsible for picking the winner the following week.

Every week one of the members has a ‘guest speaker’ slot where they can talk at a more leisurely pace for the luxury of 10 minutes.

This week it was the turn of Damian Molyneux, advocate at M&P Legal based in Bucks Road, Douglas.

Members pay a one-off payment of £110 and then annual dues of £435, but as Anne Marie Hanna pointed out, they are expected to make a much bigger return from being members of this networking organisation. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this hardy group of people don’t achieve their new target of £2 million of business in the next 12 months. WWW.BNI.EU

Twenty-six members of Douglas Golf club borrowed a van from Manx Independent Carriers to take their clubs and baggage to the UK for a weekend of friendly competition.

All costs were waived and the golfers decided that they would make a donation to a charity of the company’s choice. The company chose Hospice Isle of Man.

Pictured (left to right) are Peter Musson of Douglas Golf Club, Siobhan Ellison and Jackie Raleigh of Hospice and John Quaye, chairman of Manx Independent Carriers.

Pictured is Garry Ellison and Dean Ayres from the Manx Kart Club present a cheque for £805 to Carole Whitfield of the fundraising team at Hospice.

The club organised an endurance weekend and raised the money for the children’s hospice Rebecca House.

GE Aviation process operator Eddie Greason and colleagues have presented a cheque for £1,000 to Angela Lawrence, volunteer co-ordinator for Help For Heroes.

Staff at GE Aviation, based at School Road in Onchan, vote to support a different charity every three months.

A spokesman said: ‘For our last quarter we chose Help For Heroes as our charity and all our troops got behind our nation’s troops to raise funds by running quizzes, raffles and a colossal bake sale. We managed to raise a massive £1,000 which included large donations of time, prizes and funds.’

Activities are already planned for this quarter’s new charity – Rebecca House.

The Drug Advice Service and Helpline (DASH) has a new four-legged helper.

Wagg is an 11-year-old Pets as Therapy (PAT) dog, which has joined the service for one day a week to bring the benefit of animal-assisted therapy to those addressing their drug use or to family members affected by related issues.

DASH director Shelley Stanley said: ‘There is solid evidence to support the healing properties of animals. They bring calm, reduce anxiety and blood pressure, and respond well to those troubled or upset.

‘We had a trial period of allowing people to bring their own pets to appointments which worked really well, particularly for those who hadn’t used the service before and would have been quite nervous. Animals break down barriers and help build relationships and they also teach us a lot too. From there we were kindly offered the services of Wagg, who is experienced and fully trained.’

Liz Ward, Wagg’s owner and trainer, said, ‘Wagg has always been a caring, perceptive dog and has worked as a PAT dog for approximatly seven years.

‘She’s been to Hospice, Rebecca House and retirement homes as well as many others, but this is her first placement in a service and she’s settled in straight away. She’s a natural.’

For confidential drug and alcohol advice and support contact DASH on 615622 or info@drugs.org.im

Chief Minister Allan Bell has issued an appeal for local businesses to give their backing to the Island of Culture programme of events taking place next year.

Promoted by the Isle of Man Arts Council, it is a celebration of the community’s creative talent across a wide range of activities, from dance to digital innovation.

Mr Bell said Island of Culture was an ‘exciting concept that will promote the arts and culture, and the Isle of Man’s national identity’.

He said the Arts Council was to be congratulated for its ‘hard work and imagination in developing what promises to be a very varied and interesting programme of events next year’.

‘I know that a number of business sponsors have already committed to supporting Island of Culture, which is much appreciated, but there are still opportunities for further corporate involvement,’ he said.

‘Island of Culture is all about celebrating creativity, excellence, identity and community.

‘These are themes which should resonate with much of the private sector and I would urge all companies to consider how they could support this important initiative for the Isle of Man.’

For more information see www.islandofculture.im

Alternatively, email iomartscouncil@gov.im or phone 694598.

• Meanwhile, individuals and groups involved with creativity or culture are invited to share their talent with schools.

Island of Culture co-ordinator Jo Overty is building a database for head teachers to select from – so they can who is willing to offer what at their age range and in their areas.

So far, 38 talented groups and individuals have come forward.

Contact Jo Overty on 686080 or email jo.overty@doe.gov.im

No fewer than 10 MHKs have signed a letter calling for the removal of David Anderson as Health Minister.

But Chief Minister Allan Bell has hit out at the bankbenchers who he says are using Noble’s Hospital as a ‘political football’.

The letter, understood to have been signed by Kate Beecroft, Peter Karran, Zac Hall, Leonard Singer, Alfred Cannan, Howard Quayle, Laurence Skelly, Chris Thomas, John Houghton and Brenda Cannell, calls for the Chief Minister ‘as a matter of urgency’ to take the necessary steps to restore confidence in the health department by replacing Mr Anderson as Minister.

Their concerns follow a letter signed by 10 consultants that highlights concerns about patients’ safety at Noble’s. The letter also claims Mr Anderson and his chief executive David Killip made misleading comments to a Tynwald committee about a report into a review of bowel surgery – a claim denied by the Health Minister.

A delegation of four MHKs subsequently spoke to Mr Bell.

He told the Examiner: ‘I can understand the concerns members have. We have all read about the problems the hospital in particular has been struggling with. My concern is that we should take this issue out of the political arena and stop using the hospital as a political football.’

Mr Bell said the debate had affected the morale of Noble’s staff. He has previously stated he is committed to dealing with the problems at the hospital. He said he has made three visits so far and spoken to the consultants whose letter sparked the current row.

‘I had a very positive meeting and a number of constructive ideas were put forward. I want things implemented as soon as possible.’

Asked if he continued to have confidence in Mr Anderson as Health Minister, Mr Bell replied: ‘I do not want to be sidetracked with political issues.’