Thanks for taking the time to visit this JustGiving page.

Stewart Barnett and Roddy Davidson will be swimming 10 lengths in more than 100 public pools across the Length and Breadth of mainland Scotland. We will be swimming more than 30km and travelling more than 2,000 miles in just eight days in June 2010. We are just a touch mad but we both hope that you will sponsor us to raise much needed funds for Young Carers in Perth.

We have had some good support from local and national businesses and organisations with British/Scottish Gas Business providing a car and covering other expenses, Perth Strathearn Round Table covering fuel costs and other expenses, Peter Vardy providing a car and the Scottish Youth Hostels Association (www.syha.org.uk/home.aspx) providing us with some free accommodation. A BIG THANK YOU to all of you.

We also need to give a MASSIVE THANK YOU to the councils and trusts around Scotland that have been so supportive in letting us use their pools for this event.

Young Carers are people under 16 who care for someone with an illness or disability and there may be as many as 1200 young people and children in and around who have been identified as a carer for a loved one at home. The Young Carers Project currently provides much needed support to 60 of these brave individuals with limited resources and has a waiting list of over 30. They need as much support as we can give them. The caring role and level of responsibility these children have can severely impact their social and emotional development and steal their childhood:

·         1 in 4 young carers will be affected by poor mental development

·         1 in 10 young carers spend over 50 hours a week caring

·         Less than 24% of identified young carers go on to further education or employment at 16

·         60% of all identified young carers stated that their health is affected due to their caring role

·         After school attendance, sleeping and regular normal chores an average child has 60 hours a week free time

·         An average young carer has only 20 hours free time a week.

·         This equates to a young carer having a third of the time their peers have to be a Child!!.

PKAVS Young Carers Project supports the most vulnerable and provides them with opportunities to be a Child first and Carer second.

Here is a summary of how the money we will raise can help the young carers in Perth:

·         £20 covers the cost for one hour one – one support for a young carer

·         £50 covers the cost of a young carer attending a full day activity

·         £150 covers the cost of 2 group evenings including materials or will provide one young carer with the equipment needed to participate in our Duke of Edinburgh Award

·         £500 is enough for the project to provide a full day activity for a group of up to 12 young carers.

·         £5000 would provide the project with the opportunity to give up to 12 young carers a respite activity based holiday.

So PLEASE dig deep and make a donation. 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.