Image source, University of Aberdeen

A man has completed a 106-mile ultra-marathon in his garden to raise funds for the NHS just seven weeks after undergoing major heart surgery.

University of Aberdeen IT specialist Mike Raffan, 40, who lives near Collieston, took 27-and-a-half hours to complete the challenge.

It was 16 laps per mile in his garden, with occasional 10-minute breaks.

He has so far raised more than £1,300 for the Glasgow Golden Jubilee Hospital, as a thank you to the medical team who looked after him during his surgery.

Angie Brown
Edinburgh and East reporter

Image source, Laura McLellan

Tesco checkout manager Laura McLellan says she has never felt so humbled as when she and her team were told they were key workers.

Laura, who is in charge of 60 of the 200 staff at a Tesco superstore in Leith, felt so proud that she wanted to tell her school headmaster about the important job she was now doing during the coronavirus pandemic.

"I don't fear coming to work," she said.

"I don't feel more at risk, because we are doing everything we possibly can in this unprecedented situation."

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Covid-19 Committee member Murdo Fraser, Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, says the Scottish government's paper on routes out of the lockdown was "helpful" but questions whether, if the Scottish and UK governments opt for different policies, there could be 'complexity of messages'.

Michael Russell, the Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations, reiterates First Minster Nicola Sturgeon's desire to keep the message simple about what members of the public should and shouldn't do when the time comes to ease any lockdown measures.

Mr Russell says: "The core of this issue is very simple, 'What is best for the people of Scotland?' That is her primary duty."

Mornings with Stephen Jardine
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

Comic impressionist Rory Bremner joins BBC Radio Scotland to discuss the importance of laughter in these uncertain times.

"It's one of the most basic human things we have," he says. "Humour is such a deep rooted thing.

"It empowers us when things are scary. In dark times the human response is to come together and humour is a way of taking back control. It shows we're not going to be beaten by this."

Bremner admits is important to get the tone right given the seriousness of the current coronavirus situation.

"Victoria Wood once said, 'If it's bad taste it's not funny and if it's funny it's not bad taste'. That line changes all the time and context is everything. I've not done Boris Johnson for a while because he ceased being the prime minister and became a patient in intensive care. You respond to the mood."

Image source, Isha Shah

Scotland's biggest music festival has just announced it has cancelled the 2020 event amid the coronavirus pandemic.

TRNSMT was due to take place at Glasgow Green this July with tens of thousands of fans expected to attend to see headliners such as Lewis Capaldi and Liam Gallagher.

The organisers say they were "gutted" but the move was "unavoidable".

They say ticketholders will be able to use them next year instead or get a refund.

Image source, Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament's Covid-19 Committee are meeting for the first time today, via video link.

Michael Russell, the Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations, says it is has been necessary to bring in "unprecedented powers to government" and that the purpose of the committee is to scrutinise those extra powers before and after they are processed through the legislative process.

The MSP for Argyll and Bute says he lookss forward to the day when the Covid-19 Committee is not needed, but says that day is some while away.

Mornings with Stephen Jardine
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

"A gentle release" from the coronavirus lockdown will help the nation's mental health, says Dr Alan Maryon-Davis, honorary professor of public health at King's College London.

"A lot of things can go ahead with that two-metre distance, it just takes some creative thinking," he tells BBC Radio Scotland.

"A little something extra each week will help to keep people's mental health in reasonable shape. Looking forward to an easing of restrictions gives us some hope.

"A gentle release, along with increased testing, should keep a lid on the virus and keep it simmering, so the health service can cope before a vaccine is found."

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

The first minister spoke to Good Morning Scotland earlier when she expanded on her statement yesterday outlining the government's thinking on how a lifting of the coronavirus lockdown is likely to be phased in Scotland.

The key points from her interview were:

• It will be "baby steps" on the path to easing lockdown restrictions in Scotland. "We are going to have to learn to live with Covid-19 for some time", she says.
• A new system allowing coronavirus tests for all essential workers and their families will apply to Scotland. Teachers and supermarket staff are among millions of key workers in England who can now book a coronavirus test if they have symptoms.
• The first minister said she was hopeful elections to the Scottish Parliament in May 2021 would go ahead.
• She reiterated her stance that major crowd events, such as football matches and concerts, were not going to be possible for some time to come.

How do we help the hospitality business when its whole purpose is to reduce social distance?

Predications that Scotland will not return to normal in the near future because of coronavirus dominate the front pages

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Ending on a positive note, the first minister says she can see a way through the coronavirus crisis.

Image source, First minister

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, PA Media

The first minister says she is cautious about saying anything categorical but she wants the Scottish Parliamentary elections to take place in May 2021.

Ms Sturgeon says her starting point is that they should go ahead but we may have to do things differently.

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Google

Yesterday, UK health secretary Matt Hancock announced that key workers and their households can now book a coronavirus test online or through their employer.

The move allows millions of essential workers in England to register for tests on the government's website, if they or a family member have virus symptoms.

BBC Scotland's Gary Robertson asks Ms Sturgeon if the same will be available for Scotland.

"We are working through today that system becoming operational in Scotland.

"There are one or two practical issues we have to make sure we understand here in Scotland so that it fits with our approach to testing and the systems we have in place

"But certainly our intention is that that will be up and running here too," she says.

Ms Sturgeon says hopefully this will be "very soon".

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

Ms Sturgeon says the same principles apply to younger children as older pupils, but it will be more difficult to get them to maintain social-distancing rules.

"Trying to get nursery children, or even in the early years of primary school, to have the discipline and understanding to stay two metres apart from each other is a much different proposition," she says.

The first minister repeated that decisions needed to be made about adapting to the "new normal".

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

The first minister says major crowd events, such as football matches and concerts, are not going to be possible for some time to come.

However, Ms Sturgeon says she is questioning whether it might be possible for small-scale outdoor activity to be phased back in earlier.

"We don't know that for sure yet, but these are the variations that we are thinking about and looking at," she says.

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

Ms Sturgeon said her thoughts on how schools might operate in future was her "just thinking aloud" and no decisions had been made.

She said that if social distancing continued, then people staying 2m apart would put an upper limit on how many pupils could be in a classroom.

"Do we have to take classes and divide them into two, where half of the class is there one week and the other half another week?," she says.

"Or one half in the morning and the other in the afternoon?"

These are the kinds of things we are having to think through, she says.

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Ms Sturgeon said that politicians usually want to demonstrate to people how certain they are but the current situation was "really uncertain".

She says that as we lift the lockdown restrictions, we don't know what impact they may have.

"We may have to go back the way sometimes and adapt as we go," she says.

Image source, Google

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, getty

The first minister said the document she released yesterday was not setting out firm decisions on the exit strategy from lockdown and social-distancing restrictions.

Ms Sturgeon says it was about saying to people that the decisions were about "careful judgements".

She says she wants a transparent discussion with the public about the factors that need to be weighed up and asking people for their views.

"These are decisions that will impact on the lives of each and every one of us for some time to come," she says.