Hello there,

As most of you know, my family have been fundraising incredibly hard for the past 4 years for The Ayrshire Hospice on behalf of my dad, John McLaughlin. There have been many different fundraisers, from sponsored walks and marathons, to bingo nights, to Christmas fairs, all of which have now unbelievably raised over £50,000. That amount couldn’t be achieved without our tireless friends and family who just keep on putting an enormous effort in. Just incredible, Thank you.

I can’t begin to express my gratitude to everyone who has made an effort, or donated to those who have organised each fundraiser. So thank you again to everyone involved, it is truly amazing the amount of good that’s come through deep heartache.

During this time, I haven’t felt able to bring myself to help with fundraising, like my family have over this long and everlasting hole that’s now part of our lives. More recently I’ve began to try and process what’s going on, and feel ready to attempt to try help like so many others have.

For those who know me well know that “I’m not the brains of the outfit”, so I’m going to try do a physical challenge that will match the kind of effort everyone else has put in during these tough times.

So, beginning on Sunday the 14th of July, every day for 7 days, I will be running a route from my house in Dundonald to the hospice in Ayr and back, which is just over a marathon in distance. I know this won’t be easy, so hopefully 6 months of training will help me with this challenge. I’m also not known for doing things in half measures, so hopefully will manage to complete even though I know it’s a bit crazy. I know there will be a few keen runners that might be reading this, so feel free to join me for any distance at all to help push me through 😂.

The Ayrshire Hospice really was everything in our time of need. I sometimes struggle to accept a lot of things that went on during that time, but one thing for sure is that my dad and us as a family wouldn’t have got the little time close together again if it wasn’t for The Ayrshire Hospice.

Don’t quote me on this, but I’m sure it costs The Hospice around £10,000 a day to run, so every penny we fundraise is truly important in the running of this facility, so please if you can donote even the smallest amount - it would help in going a long way for families like ours.

Thank you in advance for any donations and I hope to update you on my journey on Facebook if you are interested.

Happy to be a part of Team McLaughlin 💚.