A founder of the Lochaber charity Kirsty’s Kids, John Bryden, has appealed to the Prime Minister for help as he enters his fourth week of hunger strike protesting against a “24/7” Network Rail yard next door, which has driven the charity to close its respite centre for sick children.
An online petition, titled ‘Children’s Respite Home closed by Network Rail’s Heartless Action’, neared 2,000 signatures by Tuesday. “We need 10,000 to get an audience in Westminster,” Kirsty’s Kids said on social media.
Former policeman John Bryden, chairman of the Kirsty’s Kids charity at Craiglea, Lochailort, began his hunger strike on November 1. John and his wife Jan, the charity’s treasurer, have also been holding a daily roadside protest “to save kirstyskids.org”.
Kirsty’s Kids was founded in the name of the couple’s 19-year-old daughter Kirsty, who lost her life in a car accident. She loved children and had already spent time caring for sick young people in Mozambique and at home.
Following Kirsty’s death, John set off around the world on his daughter’s motorcycle, raising £100,000 to get the charity started. From there, Kirsty’s Kids grew into an organisation offering free respite care to vulnerable children and their families.
“Our patron Kirsty when she was a little girl loved Eeyore,” the charity updated on November 17, showing a picture of John’s outdoor vigil, beside the stuffed donkey from Winnie-the-Pooh. “He was always doom and gloom, so she was always cheering him up.
“Eeyore has since been on every fundraising adventure Kirsty’s Kids has ever undertaken with John and Jan, from crossing Northern Siberia to travelling into South West Sahara and Eastern Ukraine.
“So in the last 13 years, Eeyore alone has brought joy happiness and lifesaving aid to hundreds of children. Here he is again helping John on the campaign, this time for the very survival of this valuable children’s charity, in what was a place of peace natural beauty and safety for those most vulnerable.
“Please keep supporting Eeyore and John to stop these terminators and force those at the highest level to rethink. Time is running short for John and he is not going to give up his dignity and forsake the children.”
A further update on November 18 said: “John’s resolve seems to get stronger. He said today: ‘The big man upstairs must be feeding me. The weight has fallen away from him. But he is determined.”
The next day also rained “non stop”, it said. “Despite trustees pleading with John to have a day inside by the fire, he again refused. ‘My place needs to be here,’ he said: ‘I need to show people passing who stop just how bad it is here. It is impossible to relay just how terrible it is.’”
“We are devastated and absolutely broken,” the couple explained. “Our beloved charity depends on our little holiday resort for its overheads and to let the respite families have free care breaks.
“It is a much bigger issue than mere noise. A tranquil location for children cannot exist while a monster industrial complex exists with deliveries, etc.. Their machines come back year after year without notice, causing us to flee. They work at times 24 hours a day, last time displacing us from our home for five months. We ended up sleeping in the work van in a layby to escape.
“We can never open again until they move permanently somewhere else,” they said. “John’s not going to stop campaigning until they leave the family to get their lives back, with assurances Network Rail will never come back to the meadow beside the house.
“There must be something that can be done to give us our lives and charity back.”
John has also appealed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. “Please stop your corporation Network Rail abusing its powers by destroying our lives and that of this valuable sick and disadvantaged children’s respite care home,” he wrote.
“Please see our website and especially facebook page which details the trauma. I do not think any innocent person should be subjected to this never mind seriously sick children and those in need of our desperate care. Please stop this now.”
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “The charity has raised its concerns with us and we’re working with them to minimise disruption where we can. The work we are carrying out on the track is vital to keeping the railway safe for colleagues and passengers.”
Network Rail added it was in regular dialogue with the charity to reduce disruption where possible and, for mitigations, it was using a quieter, hybrid generator which has been moved to the other side of the cabins.
It has also installed acoustic sound barriers which will also reduce noise, it said, and is engaging with specialist noise consultants who can advise on any immediate steps it can take to reduce disruption.
Staff have also been briefed to keep unnecessary noise to a minimum, it says, and it is working within all the appropriate rules and regulations, but will look to reduce the impact of work on our neighbours where it can.