In June 2025, Graeme (AYF's Youth Work Project Manager) will take on his biggest challenge to date, running for 24 hours straight round the high school field. This is a loop of about 300m. In doing so, he hopes to hit 100 miles - roughly 500 loops of the track!

In the last few years, Graeme has completed an annual ultramarathon fundraiser for the charity.

Previously, Graeme has done other long-distance fundraisers for AYF - including a 4x4x48 (running 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours to total 48 miles), the River Ayr Way (41 miles), round the Isle of Arran in 2023 (56 miles) and again round the island in 2024. This will be his biggest challenge by far.

Speaking about the challenge, Graeme said: "I've always really loved raising funds for Arran Youth Foundations. Every time I've done something like this, it gives me such a buzz to see the support that Arran Youth Foundations gets from the local community and even further afield.

"Our most successful fundraiser to date was the run round Arran in 2023, when we raised over £5,000. That was many times what my target had been. Last year we raised an incredible amount too - over £3,000.

"This year I knew I didn't want to run round the island again as that one has been ticked off. The first year I managed it in about 14 hours. The second time I wanted to improve on that and managed it in about 12.

"The idea for this 24-hour run was planted when I finished running round the island the second time and knew I still had more miles in me. It made me wonder how long I could keep going for.

"I wanted to come up with something that would capture the imagination and really motivate folk to support the good work we do with the charity. I'm going to start my run just before the kids at Arran High School start their school day; and once that's done and they've gone home and slept and come back to school the next day, I'll only just be finishing.

"Hopefully that drives home how long 24 hours of running is!"

The charity is the only provider of youth work services on the island. Working with most of the high school kids, they also engage 100% of the Primary 7s as well as supporting many young adults with issues like employability, additional needs and poverty.

Open every weekday, AYF provides daily lunchtime dropins as well as after-school clubs like P7 Club, girls football, Friday night youth club and lots more. AYF's youth workers support many young people with challenges they are facing - even providing art therapy or counselling for those who need.

Everything they provide is free, ensuring cost is no barrier to any young person on the island.

Any donation you can give to support this vital work would be incredibly appreciated, especially by the young people who benefit from everything the organisation provides.