Tough trio walk tall after cash fundraiser

A trio from Paisley set out on an emotional trek for charity and raised thousands of pounds for a care home in the area.

Rebecca Smith, husband Jonathan, and her father Fraser Luke took on the epic West Highland Way walking challenge together in support of the Hunterhill Care Home where Rebecca’s mum Anne is a resident.

Anne, 67, has early on-set Alzheimer’s Disease and requires round the clock care from the staff at the care home, where she has lived for the past 18 months.

She was officially diagnosed in 2018, but she’d been showing symptoms since 2012.

Fraser, 69, was severely overweight when Anne’s symptoms took a turn for the worse, but has since turned his health around, losing an incredible eight and a half stone in weight.

It was his idea to take on the walk in support of the staff at Hunterhill Care Home and the residents therein.

Rebecca told the Express: “My dad came up with the idea to fundraise for my mum’s care home. He has lost a significant amount of weight over the past two years, he’s been walking every day and in August he decided that he wanted to take on a challenge and my husband and I got roped into supporting him in it.”

The money they raised will go to keeping residents entertained. Rebecca explained: “We wanted to fundraise for the care home to provide stimulation for the residents. They do a lot of great work there with the residents like taking them on theatre trips, they’ve gone on canal barge tours, they get entertainers in and things, and it all costs money and they’ve got a miniscule budget for it so we wanted to help out.”

The walk is a whopping 96 miles. It runs from Milngavie up to Fort William. Anne, Fraser, and Jonathan completed it in six days between April 4 and 9.

It gave the trio a lot of time to reflect and talk about the reason they were doing this trip.

Rebecca said: “We were talking a lot about my mum. I don’t think she would have believed the turnaround that my dad’s made with his health and that he was out doing this challenge at 69.

“It was quite an achievement for him, he was quite emotional throughout the week. It was a bit of an emotional trip.”

She added: “It was nice to spend some time with my dad and to do it for mum was extra special. He’s emotional about my mum at the best of times, but doing that walk, he was so exhausted, it was so hard going, that it hit him even harder.”

The trio have so far managed to raise £3,430 for Hunterhill care Home and their fundraising page is still open for those who would like to make any last minute donations. The link is available here: www.justgiving.com/ crowdfunding/anneluke