Bo'ness trio's charity walk to mark the end of school

Owen Watkins, Aaron Marsters and Findlay Macinnes plan to walk the West Highland Way as part of their ‘lads holiday’ in June once they have finished their studies at Bo’ness Academy.

And rather than just walking the scenic route from Milngavie to Fort William for fun, they have decided to use the challenge to raise cash for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Owen explained: “We were talking about doing this as a our lads holiday back in December, fast forward a couple of months and here we are.

Aaron is a keen Munro climber and Findlay and I enjoy wild camping.

We know others are going abroad after school finishes but we thought we’d stay in Scotland and walk the West Highland Way.

"We thought will all this walking we are planning on doing we could put it towards a good cause and try and raise some money for charity.

"We chose the Teenage Cancer Trust as we want to help other people our own age who are going through tough times.”

The trio, who are all 17 and S6 pupils at the academy, plan to complete the distance in six days.

“We’re going to have to put in some training,” continued Owen.

"I want to try and avoid getting blisters as much as possible.

"We’ve worked out our distances and where we’ll stay on the route.

"Twenty-one miles is the furthest we’ll go in a day.

"I have to admit 21 miles in one day is going to be brutal.”

The friends have set up a GoFundMe page for their fundraising efforts and have so far raised £1035.

Owen said: “Within a day or two we had smashed our target of £250.

"We’re over the moon.”

And now the three friends will be bleaching their hair after making a pledge to do so if they reached £1000.

"We would like to thank everyone for their kind donations, no matter how big or small as it has gone towards a brilliant cause which will help young people who are going through such a horrible time.”

To donate to the fundraiser click here

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