Many of you may already know that our friend, the all-round legend and former Scottish rugby international Doddie Weir, revealed he was suffering with Motor Neurone Disease in June 2017. Doddie will celebrate his 50th birthday on Saturday 4th July 2020 and in order to celebrate his big 5-0, we will be walking 50km across the Scottish Borders in aid of Doddie’s charitable foundation.

Myself and Bernie will walk a small part of the Southern Upland Way, round the Greenyards in Melrose (a pitch Doddie graced many times over the years), onto Galashiels and then using various routes over to Peebles to ensure we hit the big 50 kilometres on the day. Hopefully it will take around 10 hours (depending upon weather and our general condition!). It is certainly a good thing that current circumstances dictate no pubs or rugby clubs are open on the way otherwise it would probably take a few days! :-) Just to cover this off, this is one household doing the walk and we will social distancing from anyone we meet on the way as normal.

It is an extremely worthy cause and one we are delighted to support as best we can. So……..we are looking for your donations……

Amazingly, in order to boost this fundraising effort, my employer, William Grant & Sons, will be DOUBLE MATCHING YOUR DONATION. So if you pledge say £20, William Grant and Sons will double match that with an additional £40*. Your donation would therefore be worth a whopping £60 to Doddie’s charitable foundation! Or how about pledging £50 on the occasion of Doddie’s 50th birthday which William Grant & Sons will then round up by £100* to £150!!

This is a rare (maybe one off) opportunity to make your money go three times further than normal! Incredible generosity from William Grant & Sons and for that we are eternally grateful. *Just so we are clear and transparent, William Grant & Sons will contribute up to a maximum of £10,000 to the fund, on the off chance we get much more than expected. There is no need to do anything other than donate your contribution on the page. The William Grant & Sons donation will be added after fundraising closes.

All money raised will go straight to Doddie’s foundation to help continue the valuable work started back in 2017 by continuing to help individuals and families impacted by this terrible disease and also aiding research to investigate potential cures.

For those of you who wish to find out more about Doddie’s charitable foundation please see the link below. Thanks in advance for your kind donations.

https://www.myname5doddie.co.uk/