Outlander star helps Highlands health project

One of the main stars of the Outlander TV series has helped a health project to win funding.

NHS Highlands' Near Me team plans to pilot a service offering consultations in patients' homes via video links.

To get the funding the team had to gain support for its project via social media in a charity-run competition.

Fans of the Outlander books and TV series living in the Highlands shared the project on Twitter, leading to a retweet from Caitriona Balfe.

She plays a 1940s nurse who travels back in time to 18th Century.

Diana Gabaldon, who wrote the books, also shared details of the project.

NHS Near Me currently runs a service in Caithness which offers patients appointments using video links to consultants in Inverness.

It hopes to begin running the new trial in Skye next year after winning funding from the Health Foundation.

The team competed in a vote with other health projects for funds, using social media to gain supporters for its bid. It came fourth in the vote.

Clare Morrison, of the NHS Near Me team, said: "We are hugely grateful to everyone who supported our bid via Twitter.

"There were too many people locally to mention everyone but their retweets as well as the support from the Outlander fan base, reached a huge audience."