Rugby star Rob rolls into Ullapool
FORMER Scottish Rugby captain Rob Wainwright will be rolling into Ullapool today (Monday) as part of a mammoth charity cycle to provide hope for hungry children.
The ex-rugby star turned farmer has persuaded eight friends to join him on a hilly Highland ride, which will see them cover 811 miles and 54,209 feet of ascent in just nine days.
The team has already raised over £13,000 for Mary’s Meals, a Scottish-based charity that helps to break the cycle of poverty by setting up school feeding programmes in some of the world’s poorest countries.
The charity, which provides a daily meal in school to attract hungry children to the classroom and improve their chances of a brighter future, currently reaches 894,288 children every school day.
The challenging ride has been nicknamed North of the Fault after the Great Glen fault line, which runs down by Loch Ness. The route will take the riders from Oban to John o’Groats via Applecross and Ullapool, then down through Beauly and back to Oban for the ferry to the Isle of Mull.
Rob and friends will be camping en route, and on the final day, the nine-strong team will complete the Isle of Mull Sportive—an 88 mile cycle route with 3,500 feet of ascent.
Rob said: "During the long winters on Coll we spend many an evening scheming about the exciting things we are definitely going to do in summer. Alas, few of our dreams ever make it past planning, but finally we had an idea that has come to fruition!
"We first toyed with the idea of doing a cycle from Land’s End to John o’Groats, but quickly decided we preferred our own neck of the woods, so the North of the Fault route was dreamt up. While our route is slightly shorter, it’s also rather more climbing and will be quite a tough ride for our team.
"We wanted a meaningful charitable element to such a demanding project, and the simple genius of Mary’s Meals was a no brainer, particularly since it started locally and is on our route.
"The generous reaction we’ve had to our fundraising target has been great, with support flooding in from both friends and businesses, including our main sponsor, Alliance Trust. Clearly we are not alone in thinking Mary’s Meals feeding hungry children in school is a great idea."
It costs Mary’s Meals an average £12.20 to feed a child for a whole school year so Rob and his team are hoping to make a huge difference to some of the world’s poorest communities.
Their fundraising target is set at £20,000 - enough to allow Mary’s Meals to offer over 1,600 children a better future through food and education.
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder and CEO of Mary’s Meals, said: "I often feel humbled at the different ways people find to help Mary’s Meals reach out to the world’s poorest children and this is certainly no exception.
"There is immense physical effort involved in a challenge like this and we’re incredibly grateful to Rob and his team for helping to raise awareness and vital funds for Mary’s Meals."
• To sponsor the team, visit uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/NorthoftheFault and to follow their progress, search North of the Fault on Facebook.
For further information on Mary’s Meals, please visit www.marysmeals.org.uk.