Bands charity named

The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (Northern Ireland Branch) has announced Friends of the Cancer Centre as its chosen charity for this year’s Pipe Band and Drum Major Championships.

Branch president Winston Pinkerton attended the launch at the Northern Ireland Cancer Centre at Belfast City Hospital.

He said, “I chose ‘Friends of the Cancer Centre’ as this year’s charity because as well as having been treated for cancer myself, I am quite sure that most members of each pipe band in Northern Ireland know of someone affected by cancer who has also been treated at the Cancer Centre.”

The first 2015 pipe band and drum major competition will be in Bangor on 16 May.

The chosen charity for the RSPBANI (Co Down Section) competition in Lurgan Park on Saturday 20 June is the NI Children’s Hospice.