Charity walk
Patrick and Beverley Scott of Whiting Bay have walked the 65-mile Arran Coastal Way to raise money for an animal charity in their native South Africa.
The fundraising couple have been completing charity walks in Britain since 2011 and this year, after moving to Arran in March, they chose to do the coastal way, over a period of seven days, since it was close to home.
Their latest fundraiser was one of their shortest in the past six years, having completed a host of long-distance walks, including the 146-mile Shakespeare Way and the 187-mile Thames Path, from the source near Kemble to the Thames Barrier in London.
All of the walks have been funded by Patrick and Beverley themselves and all of the money raised has gone to the Animal Anti-Cruelty League, which operates almost exclusively in the impoverished townships in South Africa. The funds are used to sterilise dogs in the townships of Port Elizabeth, with over-breeding being a perennial problem in those areas due primarily to the owners being too impoverished to be able to afford the surgery. So far, through their fundraising efforts they have raised sufficient funds to sterilise about 480 dogs from these walks. Their latest fundraising will be used for spaying dogs in the rural areas of Bedford and Adelaide in November.
Beverley said: ‘It was a most rewarding walk to do, with breathtaking scenery along the way. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to get to know the coast of Arran where we now live. The weather was very changeable and we often had a good soaking at some stage of our walk. We took a break for the weekend because we are both pipers in the Arran Pipe Band, and the band was playing at events, but it gave us some time with our two dogs, four cats and two parrots at home who were starting to feel rather unhappy because they were alone all day.’
The walking couple have a Facebook page, Walking for Paws and Claws, which raises additional funds through supporters and friends and, along with this, they also do a pub challenge while completing their walks.