St. Ronan's Silver Band from Innerleithen has scooped £60,000 of National Lottery money in the Jubilee People's Millions competition.

Television presentation

The Innerleithen musicians had been hastily summoned to St. Ronan's School for the lunchtime recording session with an ITV television crew when Border presenter Fiona Armstrong appeared with the £60,000 cheque, confirming the fantastic win.

Jubilant

Band Chairman, Murray Charters was jubilant, as he told 4BR: "We are absolutely delighted with this brilliant result. It means we can give the next generation of brass players and percussionists the opportunity to learn to play."

The band has been overwhelmed by the support for their 'Tuba Dreams' project.

We would just like to say a massive thank you to the many people who took time to vote for us on Monday and helped make the dream a realityChairman, Murray Charters

Thanks

Murray added: "We would just like to say a massive thank you to the many people who took time to vote for us on Monday and helped make the dream a reality.

"Without the huge effort of our members, families, friends and supporters we could never have achieved this win. £60,000 will set us well on the way to a full new set of instruments."

Awards

The ‘People’s Millions’ is a grants programme run by the Big Lottery Fund in partnership with ITV every year since 2005. To date they have made a total of 463 awards worth over £24.5 million.