STRONGMAN 'Big Davy' Ballantyne stumbled upon a strange coincidence while carrying out his Herculean challenge of pulling a 120kg anvil up Arran's Goatfell.

The 54-year-old was doing the mammoth feat to highlight the struggles faced by his 10-year-old diabetic daughter Roisin when he met a fellow climber with an eerily close connection to him. 

Steven Ward from Yorkshire was climbing Goatfell to scatter the ashes of his late dad – and his dad had been a blacksmith on Arran and made anvils. Mr Ward's mum also has type 1 diabetes, the same condition that Davy's daughter has.

Davy, who lives on Arran, told the Herald: “That was a beautiful moment because he was coming up to spread his dad's ashes. He showed us an old picture of his dad and he was making an anvil very similar to the one I was pulling. It was really nice to see. Here we were pulling an anvil up the mountain and this other man was walking up the same mountain to scatter the ashes of his dad who made anvils on this island. We also found out that his mother has type 1 diabetes, which was also strange. It was weird but it was nice.”

Helped along the way by his photographer friend Fraser Aitchison, Davy finished the challenge in 26 days exhausted and over 2stone lighter on June 5. Friends and family joined the devoted dad for his last day and, as a treat, he was greeted by his friend Andy Earl playing the bagpipes.

When the Herald spoke with Davy, he had raised nearly £14,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and was hopeful he would reach the £15,000 mark.

The North Ayrshire Council bin man said: “People have been great. All the support has been marvellous.

“I'm still a bit sore round the ribs. From the beginning right through until the end, it was horrendously hard. You don't get used to it as the days go on. You'd think that it would get easier but it gets harder because you've got to get to where you've left the anvil the day before. The further you get, the more strenuous it gets. It's hard as it is, never mind after a two-hour walk to get to the anvil. You don't feel much like eating and you're sweating buckets so the weight just drops off rapidly. Each day you're more and more tired but each day you need more energy because you're walking further. 

“Without a doubt the last day was the hardest because I had to go back to work the next day and so we crammed it all into six hours. The average time a day was probably about three hours, so that was horrendous. It was baking hot and the soles of my feet were blistering with the heat. 

“When we heard the bagpipes on the last day, it was brilliant. It kept us going. I didn't know Andy was going to be there so it was a nice surprise.” 
The anvil is currently still at the top of Goatfell but a petition has been set up by members of the public to allow the weight to stay as a memento to Davy's feat and to provide Arran with a “legendary story” about the island's highest point. 

Davy said: “There's lots of people emailing the National Trust asking to make it a permanent feature at the top, but I'm totally indifferent to it. I've done what I set out to do and that's what really matters. 

“The head ranger said there shouldn't be a problem with it staying there over the summer because it's not a threat to the local flora and fauna. The mountain rescue are doing a risk assessment to see if it can stay. It would be funny for me to go back up and see it and it would be nice if it stayed but I'm not bothered either way.”

You can visit Big Davy's Anvil Challenge Just Giving here.