Farewell To An Old Friend…

Hi Everyone,

I meet thousands of people every year who come here to watch dolphins and out of the crowd there are always a few people who stand out. Christine Duggan (in the photo below) her Mum Jean and her Dad John have been coming up here to the Moray Firth ever since I started working at the Dolphin & Seal Centre at North Kessock in the mid 1990’s – indeed they were my very first visitors through the door. The Duggan family have been huge (and very long time) supporters of WDC – way back when the (WDCS) Adopt a Dolphin programme had Sundance first appearing as a young calf with the orangey yellow blotch on his dorsal fin that gave him his name and Christine adopted him right away, later adding Kesslet to her dolphin “family”.

Very sadly Christine died earlier this year from a brain tumour that recurred after twenty years and I was proud to know her, be her friend and keep in touch about the dolphins over much of that period. I will miss her passion for the welfare of the dolphins, the many, many laughs that we have had together over the years and the way that her and Jean would grab a big bag and do impromptu beach cleans wherever they went. Sadly Jean passed away this year too so our thoughts at WDC are with John Duggan at this very sad time.

Charlie.