The Rotary Club of Helensburgh Garelochside has a new president.

Helensburgh resident Tariq Durrani, a professor at Strathclyde University, took over the chain of office from Norman Quirk at a recent meeting – one which, like all the Rotary Club’s gatherings in recent months, was held via video link due to the government’s social distancing instructions.

And there is reason to celebrate not just for Professor Durrani, but for the whole club, after the retiring Rotary district governor for the west of Scotland, Jimmy Johnson, handed out no fewer than six awards to the club.

Sheenah Nelson received two prizes – the Community Champion and ‘Service Above Self’ award – while the club as a whole was honoured for its work on spreading the network of community public access defibrillators across Helensburgh, Lomond and West Dunbartonshire, for its Heartstart project, and for its annual internet safety poster competition involving Helensburgh and Lomond’s primary schools.

READ MORE: Rotary Club's life-saving defibrillator network is extended to Portincaple

Professor Durrani will be the club’s president during its 40th anniversary year - it was officially formed, as the Rotary Club of the Rosneath Peninsula, at a dinner at Cove Burgh Hall on June 23, 1981.

The club has been known as Helensburgh Garelochside Rotary since December 1992.

Though no longer president, Mr Quirk has taken on the role of the club’s treasurer for the coming year, while John Macpherson will continue as treasurer.

To find out more about the club’s activities, check out their website and their Facebook page.

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