TWO families rocked by illness to their fathers have banded together to raise over £4,000 for charity.

Organised by Elaine Martin, Fiona Reid, Stephen Martin, Laura McFarlane and Elaine Thomson, the group along with family and friends climbed Arran’s highest peak to raise money for The Brain Tumour Charity and North Ayrshire Cancer Care.

Their final total was £4500, which is being split between the two charities.
Elaine Thomson said: “Last year our lives and also a close family friends life were turned upside down when both our dads were diagnosed with brain tumours. Since then we have had to use all the support and services on offer to ensure they received the best possible care they deserve. As a result of using these services, we came up with the idea of climbing Goat Fell to raise funds for North Ayrshire Cancer Care and The Brain Tumour Charity to give something back to them and say thank you.

“The North Ayrshire Cancer Care service has been invaluable to both our families mainly using the volunteer driver service to take our dads up and down to the Beatson each day and any other appointment where necessary. The team of drivers are all volunteers and we can’t thank them enough for the amazing service they provide within their own time.

“Fifty of us met for the 7am boat to take on this challenge and fortunately for us the sun was shining. We all reached the summit around midday and there were many tears, aches, shouts of joy, with a few wee toasts of well done with the whisky in the Hipflask. On returning, we came back to (Jack’s Corner for a small party where both our dads could join in on the celebration of our achievements and tell us how proud they were.

“We would like to thank everyone that took part, anyone that sponsored us, Stagecoach in Arran for their assistance and also Jack’s Corner for their hospitality. Both families were so overwhelmed by everyone’s support. We will be organising a few more events over the coming months to raise funds and awareness of these charities.”