Wylie receives empire medal

Shetlander Mark Wylie, who became a British Empire Medal recipient in the Queen’s New Year Honours List, received his medal at a ceremony in Aberdeenshire on Saturday.

Mr Wylie was presented with his BEM by the Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire James Ingleby, the medal being “for services to sport in the Shetland Isles and charity work abroad.”

Mr Wylie played a large part in founding local trampolining and gymnastics clubs in the isles as well as Inferno Dance and developed a large programme of pre-school activities at the Clickimin Leisure Complex where he worked for almost 30 years.

He was responsible for bringing various Olympians to Shetland including his friend Beth Tweddle to help inspire youngsters.

When he was still a teenager Mr Wylie ran Sound Juvenile FC and Lerwick Athletics Club.

In addition to his work he has spent the past eight years organising fund-raising events in Shetland in order for him to lead overseas volunteering projects in Zambia, Romania and Malawi where local teams from the isles travelled out to help orphans.

Mr Wylie moved to Aberdeenshire last July where he is now very busy developing many new children’s activities at the Garioch Sports Centre in Inverurie, involving hundreds of children every week.

He said: “I would like to thank everyone for their continued kind words and the many congratulations received. I’ve been completely overwhelmed by everyone’s comments back home in Shetland.”

During his ceremony speech Mr Ingleby said: “Shetland’s loss is very much Aberdeenshire’s gain. We hope Mark can bring us some of the big successes he achieved in Shetland.”