A Wishaw dad is taking on a remarkable swimming challenge to raise cash for The Brain Tumour Charity.
In August 2017, Scott McQuade swam the length of Loch Lomond – 22 miles – to raise awareness and funds after his son Ross diagnosis with a brain tumour.
That swim took 11 hours and 11 minutes, with Scott raising a remarkable £6500 for The Brain Tumour Charity.
And later this week (Friday, September 9), Scott will double his efforts by swimming the length of the loch and back.
The 44 mile continuous swim is expected to take between 24 and 26 hours.
Scott told Lanarkshire Live : “A short while after completing my challenge in 2017, I began to wonder how far it would be possible for me to swim.
"From there, the idea of a two-way swim of Loch Lomond was conceived.
“As well as a journey to discover just how far I am able to push myself, I wanted this particular swim to represent the enormous challenge that anyone who has been diagnosed with a brain tumour and their loved ones goes through - as Ross and all our family and friends now know only too well.
“We were lucky to be supported by the wonderful staff at the Brain Tumour Charity and know how invaluable this support was, and continues to be, to us.”
Ross was 19 and studying at the University of the West of Scotland when he suffered a seizure in his sleep.
Further investigations at Wishaw Genereal led to the discovery of a meningioma brain tumour.
Thankfully, surgery to remove it in October 2017 was successful and Ross has been able to make a full recovery - but the McQuade family are determined to support other families dealing with a brain tumour diagnosis.
Ross told us : “I’m really so proud of my dad for putting his body through this.
"It’s amazing that he has the strength and endurance to even attempt some of the long swims during training, nevermind doing the double of Loch Lomond.
“It’s so important to keep raising awareness as the charity is a community and outlet for people to turn to.
“I was one of the lucky ones and had an amazing support system around me, which was helped massively by the charity. But people who may not be as fortunate will have more questions and will need more support in their decisions.
"The Brain Tumour Charity can help them through that.”
Aware that his swim will push him to his absolute limits, Scott has been training extremely hard since the beginning of the year clocking over one million metres - that’s 44,000 lengths of a 25m swimming pool.
Scott added: “To keep me motivated, I have memories of how strong Ross was when he was going through his journey, before, during and post- surgery.
“I know that swimming through the night will be difficult. In the darkness I really won’t be able to see much of anything, so my only point of reference will be my support boat that will be alongside me.
“I do expect that the second leg of the swim will be hardest of all as I will be getting more and more tired having already swam for 12+ hours and knowing that I have the same to do all over again.
“I’m confident that my support crew on the boat - Ross will be one of them - will be able to keep me going though!”
Scott hopes to raise as much as possible for The Brain Tumour Charity with his epic swim, and his fundraising has already exceeded £2000.
You can donate by visiting Scott's fundraising page.
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