A Tayside man who made a 600-mile mercy dash in the aftermath of the Aberfan disaster will return for the first time in 50 years.
John Sibbit was just 23 when he travelled from Arbroath to Aberfan after a coal tip above the village collapsed and engulfed Pantglas school and nearby houses.
He delivered a lorry full of sandbags following the tragedy which wiped out an entire generation, with 116 children and 28 adults losing their lives.
Mr Sibbit will return to Aberfan to mark the 50th anniversary of the disaster and will follow the exact route that he took during that overnight trip in 1966.
Known as the Lunan Bay Flyer while working with DD Transport in Dundee as a long-distance lorry driver, Mr Sibbit was actually in Wales the day before the disaster.
He was driving back to Arbroath following a pick up in Swansea when the tragedy unfolded and only found out what had happened when he got back home and saw the TV news.
Mr Sibbit finished his dinner and got a knock at the door from his boss who asked if he could take sandbags to Aberfan to help with the massive relief effort.
Despite having completed a 12-hour journey without sleep, Mr Sibbit agreed to head back to Dundee to load up the lorry before leaving for Wales at midnight.
His wife June travelled with him in the lorry to make sure he didn’t fall asleep at the wheel and they got there at 3pm the next day and delivered the sandbags.
Mr Sibbit said the chaos when they got to the Welsh pit village was unimaginable and he still struggles to talk about what happened to this day.
“I was in tears when I saw what happened,” he recalled.
“The miners were clawing through the sludge with their bare hands to find survivors.
“I’d been away driving since Sunday when I got back on the Friday night and I was tired.
“But I didn’t hesitate when I was asked to go back down to Wales and deliver the sandbags.
“I wanted to help with the relief effort and the journey was unforgettable.”
Mr Sibbit spent much of his spare time raising money for children with cancer after his mother died from the disease when he was young.
He said: “People say to me: ‘What you did over 10 years in your charity work must make you proud?’
“It does, but this — Aberfan — was my proudest moment.
“But it will never leave me.
“Even now I can’t watch footage of what happened without getting upset.
“I always wanted to go back and I think now – 50 years on – the time is right.”
Mr Sibbit began his career in 1963, driving lorryloads of fish between markets in Aberdeen, Oban, Hull and Grimsby.
In 1964 he started working with DD Transport in Dundee, working so hard he became known as the Lunan Bay Flyer.
Such was Mr Sibbit’s commitment to the job, he married his wife June on a Saturday in 1966 and was out on the road again on the Sunday.
Mr Sibbit also worked with British Road Services and Elgin Transport, the Stagecoach bus company and Friockheim coach hire company G&N Wishart.
He continues to drive to this day.
