STV Appeal

Following Olympian Katherine Grainger and stage and screen star Elaine C. Smith, we can now reveal that our very special guest editor for the climax of the STV Appeal will be our very own Jock the Dog.

New readers may not know that Jock has already made a fantastic contributon to the Appeal with his friend and handler, popular weather man Sean Batty. Sean cycled all the way from Glasgow to Edinburgh last weekend, with Jock following in his own trailer, so that they could take part in the Scottish Kennel Club's annual show.

Since then, letters, cards and donations especially marked for Jock have been flooding in. For a novice, he did brilliantly at the show  (the Kennel Club asked them back and apparently Ashley and Pudsey are seriously worried) and Sean has been having trouble keeping Jock from getting above himself.

But we felt sure that Jock would have something special to contribute to the Appeal coverage so we asked him to do us one last favour. He'll be here, on the desk, probably quite literally, calling all the shots and making the decisions that count.

If you have any special messages for Jock, please let us know at stvappeal@stv.tv. or you can Tweet us @STVAppeal.  Remember, it's all about helping children in Scotland affected by poverty. And as you'll know from watching some of our fascinating and moving Appeal coverage, poverty is about a lot more than whether or not you can get a new pair of trainers.

It's about lives blighted by generations of having not enough to live on; doctors have now found that constant levels of stress casued by the consequences of poverty can impact on the development not just of children's minds  buit on their very genes.

We're trying to help and you can too, just like wee Jock. Every penny you donate will stay in Scotland and every penny will be doubled by the Scottish government.