RHET chairman Alistair Marshall is in the midst of covering hundreds of miles over eight days to raise funds for the rural education charity.
Mr Marshall started his challenge at Stobhill Primary in Gorebridge on Tuesday morning and has smashed the initial target of £10,000, with the funds now sitting at over double the target.
He is making his way around all 13 RHET areas across Scotland including RNCI in the north-east, before arriving at the Royal Highland Showground on Wednesday.
The lead sponsor of the challenge is NFU Mutual, along with Graham’s Dairies, Kite Consulting, Hillhouse Group, Scottish Blackface Sheep Association and SRUC, amongst the next tier supporters.
“Keeping our services free of charge for schools is so important to RHET as it helps us to take the classroom to the countryside, for pupils and schools all over Scotland,” said Alistair.
“This challenge was inspired by our previous chair George Lawrie who took a tractor on tour around Scotland in 2019 and who doesn’t love a bit of friendly competition to inspire a great cause.
“My wife Fiona is cycling with me on the road and we are being joined by RHET volunteers and sponsors, and vintage tractor escorts along the way.”
Accompanying Alistair is Sky – one of the RHS Flock to the Show sheep – which was the winning design by Daniel Threlkeld from Eaglesfield School. Dumfries artist Tricia from Falu Studios adorned Sky with the colourful rural scenes chosen by the judges out of over 1,600 entries.
The winning prize for his design is a free trip to the Royal Highland Show for the whole school.
Sky will be auctioned by RHET at their gala dinner next February to keep the fundraising live.
If you would like to support the chairman’s cycle challenge, there is a dedicated JustGiving page
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/RHET-ChairmansCycleChallenge?invite=true or
scan the QR code if you are visiting the Royal Highland Show next week.
You will be able to see Sky and the other Flock to the Show sheep which will be dotted around the showground as part of a trail for all the family to enjoy.
