Aaron is on the left, I'm on the right. We took this picture almost exactly a year ago (6 August). All that year I'd been his mentor with MCR Pathways. No big deal, time-wise - we'd just meet at his school an hour a week. Yet being an MCR mentor is the best thing I've done with my life.

That's why I want to raise money for MCR. Because just one hour a week with a mentee for people like Aaron who haven't had the easiest start in life is transformational. The stats are amazing: kids with a mentor flourish in a way you'd hardly believe compared to those without.

Aaron finished school last year and went to Edinburgh College, where he is doing well. I'm now mentoring Derek, who's 14, and hope to carry on doing so for the resat of his time at school.

Having seen how much MCR benefits kids with the fewest life chances, I want to do as much as I can to help. Which is why this 70-year-old Englishman will be wearing a kilt for the first time on the Edinburgh Kiltwalk on 14 September and politely asking if you would sponsor him on an 11-mile stroll.

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