The son of a search and rescue hero is to take on a gruelling 10k race around a Perthshire loch to raise funds for charity in his honour.
Former police officer Stuart Ballantyne was a founding member of the Trossachs Search and Rescue (Trossachs SAR) team and also worked for the ambulance service.
Stuart sadly passed away from coronavirus in November 2020.
Now, his son and fellow Trossachs SAR team member, Steven, and Eilidh McCall, also a team member, will take on the Loch Rannoch 10k next month in Stuart’s memory.
The pair, both dog handlers for the team, are gearing up for the scenic race.
Following the sad death, a fundraising mission was launched in his memory to raise much-needed resources for the team, which played such a large part of his life.
The group relies solely on donations to continue running the service.
In a fundraiser launched at the time of Stuart’s passing, a whopping £2,500 was raised.
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Family man Stuart was described as a “marvellous human being and legend”.
As well as his local rescue efforts Stuart, a “gentle giant with a kind heart”, helped search for survivors in the aftermath of the Clutha helicopter disaster in Glasgow in 2013.
His family asked for donations to be made to Trossachs SAR instead of funeral flowers.
Following Stuart’s funeral in November 2020, his widow Joanne thanked those who had paid their respects, adding: “I have shed quite a few tears reading all the comments. Stuart will leave a lasting legacy for all the voluntary work he did – but he will also be sorely missed by me, his two children Avril and Steven and his grandchildren Kady and Jake and baby bump on the way.
“Trossachs Search and Rescue Team will continue to deliver the work Stuart loved, but we will miss him.”
Stuart joined the Central Scotland Police force in 1981 and performed frontline operational police duties from 1981 until 2004 in a number of stations, including Falkirk, Grangemouth Docks, Stenhousemuir, Denny, Stirling then the small rural stations at Blanefield and Balfron before transfer to Bannockburn.
He later worked in the Community Safety Policy Unit and held posts in the Race Equality Unit then as the force antisocial behaviour officer, force crime prevention officer and force equality and diversity officer before spending his last year in the Computer Crime Unit at Falkirk and retiring as sergeant in February 2011.
Whilst working as a serving police officer, Stuart created Trossachs SAR in 1997.
From the team’s formation up to his death, he held a number of different roles, including dog handler, chairman, team secretary and callout organiser and he was passionate about urban SAR dogs, search and rescue, First Responders, rescue boats, the delivery of Heartstart classes and public access defibrillators across the Trossachs and beyond.
To donate to Steven and Eilidh’s Loch Rannoch 10k effort, click here.
