My freind, Pete's, 8 year old son Robbie was diagnosed with Juvenile idiopathic arthritis last year. This is an incurable disease and can vary in severity. So far it has manifested itself in his knee twice and his jawbone. He is in pain a lot of the time.

Those of us who know Robbie will tell you he is a very kind and happy wee boy, its horrible to see him suffer like this.

The outlook for him can range from virtually no affects in his older life to severe disability and sight problems.

Robbie needs to go to The Sick Kids hospital every few weeks and requires weekly treatments administered at home by his parents. There is a LOT still to learn about this condition and funding is not great.

I'm aiming to raise as much as possible to either donate to JIA at NRAS which will help research and care of sufferers and their families or put towards groundbreaking Stem Cell treatment which is still in the early stages if the doctors say its available or suitable for Robbie. More Stem Cell info here.

More info here - JIA info here

Pete and I love mountain biking so thought we'd find a suitable challenge to prise some cash out of you! Therefore we're going to do the Tour de Ben Nevis on 22nd September along with our other friends David Gourlay and Grant Anderson who are also fundraising, our team is Robbies Rockets!

It is a 72km circumnavigation of Ben Nevis from Fort William, the Outdoor Capital of the UK. This is one of the country’s longest point-to-point events; an MTB endurance, enduro and mountain marathon event all rolled into one.

Please donate as much as you can, even a couple of pounds/dollars will help.

Please note that no costs of the event will be taken from donations, every penny will go towards research or treatment.