Iain MacDonald, son of our local MSP Gordon MacDonald, and his girlfriend, Kate Murray, are walking the West Highland Way 8-13 September to raise funds and awareness for local charity LoveOliver. LoveOliver was set up in memory of baby Oliver Gill to fund research into childhood cancer and provide practical support to families affected by it.
Oliver was born on July 10th 2010 with a very rare and aggressive form of cancer. Despite continuing to thrive and smile his way through intensive chemotherapy, Oliver passed away peacefully at home on Christmas Day 2010. His parents set up the charity in his memory and it has so far raised over £100,000. Some of the money raised has funded a PhD student at Newcastle University for three years as well as donating to their ongoing research into rhabdoid and brain tumours in children.
The charity has also provided practical support to families in a variety of ways, such as donating equipment and toys to the oncology ward at the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh and gifting supermarket vouchers to families with children on the ward.
Kate said:- “As a close friend of Oliver’s parents and his honorary auntie I’ve been involved with LoveOliver from the very beginning. Losing Oliver was so painful and I want to do as much as I can to help other families in similar positions. The response to Oliver’s story and support for the charity has been overwhelming. The West Highland Way is going to be a massive challenge, but however hard it’s going to be, I know that we will just have to keep going, and it will be worth it in the end. Only Oliver could get me to do something like this!”
Iain said:- “When Kate was trying to think of a way to raise money I thought the West Highland Way would be challenging yet achievable. Now, I couldn’t expect Kate to drag herself through a 96 mile hike on her own so I thought I’d better tag along to make sure she gets to Fort William in one piece!”
The intrepid pair aim to complete the 96 mile walk from Milngavie in Glasgow to Fort William in the Highlands in 6 days which is no easy feat!
There is lots more information about LoveOliver and our planned walk of the West Highland Way on our blog: http://wildwesternway.wordpress.com/loveoliver/
There is also a mydonate page to make it easy for those wishing to donate funds for the charity.
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