Baby raises £1000 in charity run - before she can even walk!
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A nine-month-old tot has helped raise more than £1000 in memory of the granny she has never seen.
Little Orla Maclean completed the Wee Nessie, one of the events held as part of the Baxters Loch Ness Marathon and Festival of Running on Sunday.
After bouncing along the 400-metre course in the arms of her mother Claire Ross, the baby was presented with a medal for helping raise so much money for Macmillan cancer care nurses.
Claire’s mother Anne Ross died aged 33 in 1997 when Claire was just 11 years old, and in the past she has raised funds for Highland Hospice, the Inverness-based charity which also cared for her mother.
Claire (32), of Springfield Gardens in Inverness, said: "Orla’s dad Ryan was running the Loch Ness Marathon to raise funds for Torridon Mountain Rescue Team where he has been a member since he was 16, and I decided to start an online JustGiving page for Orla to raise money for Macmillan on behalf of her granny who, sadly, she will never meet.
"I did this only three weeks before Sunday’s event, and as of Tuesday the sum was sitting at £1025, which is a really generous amount in such a short time."
She added: "Although Orla looks a bit serious in her photographs, she was laughing and giggling as she bounced along in my arms.
"I have done a lot of fundraising for the hospice in the past including a skydive and the New York Marathon, so decided to support Macmillan which also does so much for people with cancer. Macmillan was also one of the official charities of the Baxters event."
The fundraising power of wee Orla and her mother has been used to good effect in the past – raising £5000 through a silent auction for Torridon Mountain Rescue Team’s planned new base.
Last Sunday’s marathon was Ryan’s fourth fundraising effort in a "Challenge September" string of events for Torridon MRT, raising £670. The couple joked that he would have to enlist the power of Orla as she was currently beating her dad.
Other events undertaken by Mr Maclean include the 90-mile Beach More cycle sportive, the Torridon MRT off-road marathon and the Applecross Duathlon. In total he cycled 105 miles and ran 61 miles.
Orla’s fundraising page is at http://bit.ly/2fo53IC and her dad’s is at http://bit.ly/2fxya01
