A battle to stop RAF war veterans being evicted from their care home has been won by the Evening Express in Aberdeen.

Thousands of readers rallied to the Fighting For Our Heroes campaign to save Alastrean House, on upper Deeside, from closure.

Their persistence has been rewarded by a move by Tayside-based Balhousie Care Group to run the mansion, and allow the existing 21 residents to remain for as long as they wish.

The pink granite mansion house, set in the picturesque vale of Cromar, will now also be open to non-RAF residents.

In August 2003 the RAF Benevolent Fund broke the news that it could no longer afford to carry on running the home for ex-servicemen and women in need of residential and nursing care.

Since 1985, the fund had leased the specially-modified and highly-equipped building from the MacRobert Trust for a peppercorn rent.

But huge stock market losses prompted fund managers to declare it was no longer viable.

Residents were told they had until the end of 2005 to find another home.

But the residents, staff and thousands of Evening Express readers rushed to sign a petition calling on First Minister Jack McConnell to do something to try to save the home but he responded that there was nothing Holyrood could do.

The newspaper suggested the best solution would be for a care company to take over and in April last year reported the MacRobert Trust and the RAF Fund had appointed consultants to find care home specialists who might be interested in taking over.

A minimum of 15 of the 58 beds have been reserved for RAF veterans and their dependants.