A LARGS man was boldly going where no Scotsman had gone before this week in 2006 - by heading to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in a kilt!

Alasdair Hunter McCallum, of Nelson Street, took on the challenge to raise funds for Cancer Research UK and to mark turning 40.

The former chef had already jumped out of a plane from 20,000 feet for charity and was relishing the trek to one of the world’s highest peaks - with a copy of the Wee Paper in hand.

Alasdair joined his friend Alan Savage as they flew out to Nairobi, Kenya, and transferred to Tanzania.

In other news, staff, relatives and friends of Brooksby House Hospital in Largs attended a service of thanksgiving for staff and fears over the closure of Craig-en-Ros in Millport were raised at the highest level of Scottish politics.

Millport’s last surviving private nursing home, which was set to close, was discussed at Holyrood after a question was put forward by then-west of Scotland MSP Stewart Maxwell.

Morrisons' supermarket customer café in the town withdraw smoking provision and a Largs man reduced fearsome TV interrogator Jeremy Paxman to tears.

Salvation Army Commissioner Keith Banks was asked to appear on the BBC’s award-winning programme ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ to shed light on his ancestors from north of the border.

The well known Newsnight presenter had initially seen no great value in delving into the past when first asked to take part in the programme.

However, when exploring his family’s history, a visibly-emotional Paxman was shocked to confront poverty, squalor, prejudice and early death.

Keith revealed to the Newsnight presenter that his great-grandmother was left a widow with nine children in the slums of Victorian Glasgow.

Children's party season was in full swing with lots of fun activities at local schools and it was a case of 'Pastors new' for Graham McWilliams of Largs who said goodbye to local friends after being inducted as Church of Scotland minister to the linked charges of Comrie and Dundurn in Perth.

In the indoor bowling, the Halkshill team of Neville Honeyman, Bill Anderson, David Shearer, Scott McCrimmond and Richard Stracey beat the Halkshill team of Willie McCulloch in the play-off final of the evening league and a Largs boy was hoping to be a future tennis smash.

Ross Wilson had been placed as the UK's top ranked under nine by the Lawn Tennis Association.