Bellshill Six '˜would walk one hundred miles' to help children

In fact they’ll “only” have to saunter 96 miles along the West Highland Way to achieve their goal – which follows on from a whole series of other hugely successful charity stints.

The effort will see the six, all friends since their school days, spend five days trekking across the West Highland Way to raise money for the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, which they reckoned was the perfect gesture to mark Easter.

Spokesman David Markey said: “Some of us have done the 96-mile hike before, but there are three first timers, so hopefully the weather’s kind and it’s not too gruelling.”

With him in the venture are Paul Jolly, Paul Mockus, Allan Savage, William McConnell and Kieran Duggan, who have been doing plenty of hill climbing in preparation.

“Five of the six of us are from Bellshill while Kieran Duggan is from Glasgow, but works with Paul Jolly at Akela Construction.”

He added: “Our fund raising started in 2013 when Paul Jolly, Paul Mockus, Allan Savage and I ran the Edinburgh Marathon and raised money for Team Kyle – named after a local lad, and friend’s son, who had been diagnosed with a life limiting condition, and we raised £8,000.

“Paul Jolly and I continued training and doing sponsored events and we have now completed several Munros and the West Highland Way twice,

“We’ve also completed the gruelling ‘Nevis challenge’ twice – that’s where you race up and down Ben Nevis, cycle 25 miles and row 3 kilometres along a loch.

“Last year we were fourth overall and raised £4,000 for Glasgow’s Children’s Hospital Charity in a time of about seven hours.

“This event will be the hardest, I believe, as it’s new to some and 96 miles is a long way!”

If you’d like to help the Bellshill Six help the Glasgow Children’s Hospital you can donate via their Justgiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/TheBellshill6