Bookmark and Share
wp65fd19b8.png

Death of local radio star                    22/8/11

The funeral is taking place today of a popular Lewis radio personality who died of cancer.  

A legion of fans loved Peggy Macneil, best known for hosting the Saturday-night romantic music show Moonlight Shadow on Isles FM, for her chirpy, fun-loving outlook  She also hosted a show with fellow volunteer Janet Macrae, as well as an Irish country music programme.

She died, aged 66, in the Bethesda hospice in Stornoway  on Thursday, with her husband, Stornoway taxi driver, Neil, and son Francis, a Glasgow-based freelance TV cameraman, by her bedside.  Her youngest son Kevin, a well known Scots writer, was travelling up from London.

Many listeners knew only the usual bright, bubbly, humorous lady by the sound of her voice on the airwaves and never realised doctors had not expected her to see last Christmas.

Her parents hailed from Lochs and Peggy was born in Stornoway. She spent all but nine years in the same house on Macleod Road where she grew up, married and raised her own family.  

The compassionate and generous woman lived under the shadow of cancer over the last 15 years. Yet she bore her illness with remarkable fortitude and  her optimistic, sunny personality belied the pain she was suffering.

Her son Kevin is due to get married in London this Saturday and Peggy was overjoyed he had found his soul mate with his bride-to-be Charlotte Haigh.

The family praised the help and care she received at the Bethesda hospice.

Kevin said: “She would have a laugh and was being mischievous with staff and I think they were fond of her.

“They were very good to her. After her first stay she felt re-energised and rested.

“She was very tenacious and fought her illness bravely and always kept her sense of humour.”

Kevin said the wedding would be a small, quiet affair with just a meal and no dance, and would go-ahead as his mother would have wanted.

Mourners made donations to cancer charities at the funeral service at Stornoway’s Martin’s Memorial Church. The burial was taking place at Sandwick cemetery.