North Kessock teenager in constant pain inspires RAF team to cycle Loch Ness Etape
A team of logistic workers at RAF Lossiemouth are set to cycle around Loch Ness to help a teenager who’s in constant pain.
Fortrose Academy pupil Isla Grist (14), has ‘butterfly skin’ – or to give it its medical name, Epidermolysis Bullosa.
This rare condition causes her skin, including the linings of her mouth, throat and stomach, to blister at the slightest trauma.
Tony Carroll from Hopeman is one of the team from the airbase who’ll be cycling the Loch Ness Etape later this month.
He said: “I’ve known Isla’s dad Andy for years, ever since we worked at RAF Kinloss together. She’s an amazing girl who is living with a painful condition that currently has no cure.
“We as a team are raising money so that people with EB can get the treatment and medication they need.”
Scottish football legend Graeme Souness publicly described Isla as "the most unique person I've ever met", adding, “she’s an inspiration to me – even at my age.”
The former Rangers and Liverpool was so touched by the teenager’s story, which has seen her undergo 60 operations during her young life, that he undertook his own fundraising effort for Debra, the charity which supports people with butterfly skin.
Last June, at the age of 70, he swam 21-miles across the English Channel, alongside Isla’s dad Andy.
The cycling team will be tackling their challenge for Debra on Sunday, April 28.
The Loch Ness Etape covers a distance of 66 miles heading down from Inverness to Fort Augustus and back again.
It also includes a gruelling 4.8-mile climb which rises nearly half a mile upon roads that, at times, reach a 12% gradient.
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