A group of friends recently cycled the length of Scotland to raise money for Glasgow’s Children’s Hospital.
Steve Gault, 49, from Lanarkshire, took on the challenge along with pals Al (Alasdair) Crooks, and brothers Kent and Aaron McKenzie and have raised almost £3000 for the hospital charity as a thank you for the help they gave his young nephew Riley Kells.
The 11-year-old, from Wishaw, has cystinosis and has been cared for at the renal unit at the hospital, spending six months there at one point.
The genetic condition is present from birth and leads to the build-up of cystine crystals in the body. This can impact all the organs and tissues, but mainly affects the kidneys and eyes.
Uncle Steve said: “It’s an incurable thing and Riley will have it for his lifetime. He’s well at the moment but he’s still in and out of the hospital every month for checks. At some point he will need a transplant.”
All four cyclists are originally from the Hawick area in the Borders, but Steve has lived in Lanarkshire for the last 25 years. All are from Denholm, with Aaron and Al still residing there and Kent living in Edinburgh.
Steve was previously quite a keen cyclist but had fallen away from it before a number of health issues of his own encouraged him to get back in the saddle.
He said: “About seven years ago I had a bit of a brain haemorrhage and that kind of prompted me to try and look after my health a bit more. Then a couple of years ago I had a heart attack as well, so I lost a load of weight and got back on my bike and started training.
“The bleed on the brain bled so quickly and furiously that it healed itself. It seems it was a bit of an anomaly, but I was pretty lucky I think. The heart attack was just before lockdown. So lockdown was good for me as it helped me to get healthier and fitter. Cycling’s a nice low impact way of exercising, really.”
Last year the group took part in an overnight coast-to-coast cycle from Scotland to Northumberland in England but it was only after it that they considered doing something similar to raise money for a good cause.
Steve said: “We went from Annan to Bamburgh on the other coast. It took us about eight or nine hours. Because it was at night it was pretty quiet.”
This year’s challenge was much tougher with the friends cycling from Scotland’s most northerly point at Dunnet Head to its most southerly point, the Mull of Galloway.
And Steve added: “We did it over five days and it was 465 miles. It was alright, the first day was very windy, the next two were wet. It was good weather for cycling, the week before it was very hot. We had a couple of punctures, a broken chain, and a couple of crashes but nothing serious.
"The hardest bit was getting up in the morning and having to go again. We were staying in hostels for three of the nights and a remote pub called the Crask Inn on the second night, it had no water. They run off their own private loch which had run dry.”
The group are now considering a similar cycle in Ireland from north to south.
The JustGiving page they set up – Giro Di Alba – has already raised £2852 and will remain open for a time.
You can donate at: justgiving.com/page/giro-di-alba
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