A woman who is wild for walking is taking on a 100-mile trek in the memory of one of her favourite schoolteachers.
Laura Merchant, 31, is tackling all four of this year’s charity Kiltwalks to raise money for research into pancreatic cancer.
The community support worker is completing the challenge in honour of her former English teacher at Inverurie Academy, who she said was “an inspiration”.
Irene Khalil retired from teaching in 2004, and died from pancreatic cancer aged 67 in 2010.
Miss Merchant said: “As a teacher she had a big influence on me and not just in education.
“I could talk to her about everything.
“I thought it would be a very nice thing to raise some money in her memory.”
So far Miss Merchant, who now lives in Helensburgh, said the first 26.2-mile Kiltwalk in Glasgow had been one of the “best and most brutal” challenges she had set herself.
Miss Merchant has set herself a goal of raising £1,000 for Pancreatic Cancer Scotland by the end of her fourth Kiltwalk, which is in Edinburgh in September.
